Time Dependent Changes in Ag Doped YBCO Superconductors

Magnetization measurements at 77 K were conducted on the single-crystalline samples of YBCO superconductor doped with Ag prepared by the top-seeded melt-growth process. The single-grain samples had a nominal composition $Y_{1.5}Ba_2(Cu,Ag)_3O_{y}$. Magnetization measurements on the samples, oxygenated by two different processes: by standard oxygenation and by high pressure oxygenation, repeated after 24 months, revealed time dependent changes in magnetization behaviour and critical transition temperatures, T_{c}, which could be associated with redistribution of oxygen vacancies and their interaction with Ag dopant atoms.