Student Abstracts: Materials Sciences at ANL

Preliminary Investigation into Optical Fibers for Elastic Optical Scattering from Ceramic Components. . LEONARDO MELO (Richad Daley College, Chicago, IL 60652) WILLIAM ELLINGSON (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439) .
Laser scattering is a nondestructive method of finding subsurface flaws on materials through a change in optical power. A plane polarized laser beam illuminates the test sample and optical power detector measures how much light is being back scattered. Fiber optic cables can be used to deliver the laser light to the sample and the back-scattered light to the detector. Polarization-maintaining cables would have to be used to deliver the light to the sample and maintain the polarization of the laser light. Light back scattered from a subsurface defect will not have the same polarization as the light that illuminated the defect, so the it will have to be measured and compared to the polarization of the illuminating light. Cables who don't maintain polarization are being used for now to make sure the other parts of the setup work.

Development of Divalent-Doped Barium Zirconate Proton Conductors. DAVID PALMER (City Colleges of Chicago---Harold Washington, Chicago, IL 60637) TAE H. LEE (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439) .
Among perovskite-type oxides demonstrating high-temperature protonic conduction, BaCe1-xYxO3- (BCY) has shown the highest overall conductivity. However, BCY exhibits poor mechanical properties, and is chemically unstable under conditions relevant to technological application as a solid electrolyte in fuel cells or in a hydrogen-separation membrane (i.e. exposure to CO2 and H2O). The development of a high-temperature solid proton conductor with an overall electrical conductivity comparable to that of BCY but with superior mechanical properties and chemical stability is therefore highly desirable. This paper details investigations into a divalent-doped barium zirconate system. A divalent-doped barium zirconate was prepared at dopant concentrations from 5 mol% to 40 mol%. The system was found to be unstable at dopant concentrations 20 mol%. Sintered disks prepared at these dopant concentrations were found to collapse on exposure to air. Investigation into the cause of the collapse, including x-ray characterization of the collapsed disks, is ongoing.

Investigation of the Superconductivity of YBa2Cu3O7 Deposited on an ISD-MgO Substrate. DAVID PETERSEN (North Park University, Chicago, IL 60625) PETER BERGHUIS (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439) .
Superconductivity is a fast growing area of research. High Temperature Superconductors have opened the door to many more commercial uses for superconductors. Manufacturing effective and cost-efficient super-conductors has become a concern for many researchers. Transport measurements of current through the superconductor in various temperatures and fields demonstrate the effectiveness of a sample. Understanding the properties of superconductors will lead to the production of useful samples. Inclined Substrate Deposition is one method that is being investigated that might lead to a cost-efficient superconductor that has a high critical current density. It is clear that further study of the Inclined Substrate Deposition method is necessary in order to produce an effective and cost-efficient superconductor.

Magneto Optic Images of Superconductors. JUSTIN TREON (Califonia State University, Sacramento, Sacramento, CA 95838) ULRICH WELP (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439) .
An automated of system for the simultaneous measurement of transport characteristics and the acquisition of magneto-optic images of the superconducting and magnetic samples has developed and tested.