This research focuses on one of the most critical and difficult issues in the field of high temperature superconductors; the role of grain boundaries as current limiting structures in bulk and thin film materials. This research will provide a detailed study of weak links, grain boundary structure and composition as well as surface properties of high temperature superconductors. The weak link investigations focus on single grain boundaries in polycrystalline bulk materials, and will employ thinned samples for which the critical current can be probed locally and the grain boundaries to their structure and composition. Complementary surface characterization work using synchrotron radiation techniques will also be carried out. This research is potentially of great strategic importance and could provide enabling technology for commercial applications of bulk high temperature superconducting materials.
