9314835 Haugan This award supports a 12-month Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship for Dr. Timothy Haugan, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, State University of New York Buffalo, at the International Superconductivity Technology Center, Superconductivity Research Laboratory, Tokyo, Japan. During his year-long tenure, Dr. Haugan will work with Dr. Shoji Tanaka, Director of the Superconductivity Research Laboratory. on a research project entitled "Growth and Synthesis of High Tc Superconductors for Bulk Applications." The research project focuses on phase transformations occurring along different reaction pathways. To study the complicated, sometimes kinetically fast reactions that can occur in the liquid-solid "melts" during bulk synthesis, several methods will be used. Solid phase reactions will be analyzed using real- time high temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD). To study complicated liquid phase coalescence and reaction phenomena, bulk superconductors will be quenched from different times in a reaction sequence and alayzed by several methods, including film surface XRD, powder XRD, surface scanning electron microscopy (SEM), polished cross-sectional SEM, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and SQUID. Quantitative percentages of crystalline, amorphous and quenched liquid-like phases present in the reacted and quenched superconductors will be determined by SEM image analysis and XRD methods. These methods are particularly suited for studying melt or liquid-assisted bulk processing. ***
