The issue concerning the nature and the role of microstructural inhomogeneities in iron chalcogenide superconducting crystals of FeTe0.65Se0.35 and their correlation with transport properties of this system was addressed. The presented data demonstrate that chemical disorder originating from the kinetics of the crystal growth process significantly influences the superconducting properties of an Fe–Te–Se system. Transport measurements of the transition temperature and critical current density performed for microscopic bridges allow us to deduce the local properties of a superconductor with microstructural inhomogeneities, and significant differences were noted. The variances observed in the local properties were explained as a consequence of weak superconducting links existing in the studied crystals. The results confirm that the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of ions and small hexagonal symmetry nanoscale regions with nanoscale phase separation also seem to enhance the superconductivity in this system with respect to the values of the critical current density. Magnetic measurements performed in order to determine, in an alternative way, the values of the critical current density, as well as to find the relaxation rate and to check the scaling of the pinning force, confirm the conclusions drawn from the transport measurements.

The particulars of dc current passage through a structure consisting of a doubly connected superconductor (DCS) with branches that are asymmetric with respect to length and critical current have been investigated experimentally. The short branch, which has the lowest critical current, was a clamping niobium-niobium point contact with length comparable to the coherence length of the superconductor. In contrast to a previously studied DCS with a short branch much longer than the coherence length, it was found that when the short-branch current reaches the critical value the currents in the branches of the DCS do not undergo self-excited oscillations; a current exceeding the critical value enters the long branch when this current is increased in portions (is quantized), and when it is subsequently decreased it freezes partially or completely in the DCS circuit.

This review article is a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the discovery of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-d high-temperature superconductors (HTSCs). As a result of this discovery a family of (RE)Ba 2 Cu 3 O 7-d (RE stands for "rare earth") HTSCs has found great practical use. The review article consists of a brief history of how YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-d was conceived and five sections describing the family of compounds: crystallography, phase diagrams, manufacturing techniques, main superconducting properties, and fields of application.