This research is concerned with the growth of single crystals of high temperature superconductors, their materials characterization, and the measurement of fundamental transport properties. The research will be focused on three distinct classes of high Tc oxides; namely yttrium-praseodymium barium cuprate, neodymium- cerium cuprate, and yttrium barium copper-iron oxide. The past three years of high Tc work has demonstrated the importance of having quality single crystals. In this program all of the work will be done on single crystals so that anisotropy effects can be studied studied in both the superconducting and normal states. Methods developed by this group for detwinning crystals permit the direct examination of the role of twin boundaries on the superconducting properties such as, the magnetic flux motion.
