Structure, Electrical Resistivity and Superconductivity of Low-alloyed gamma-U Phase Retained to Low Temperatures by Means of Rapid Cooling
2016
Abstract
The gamma-U phase alloys can be retained down to low temperatures with less required alloying concentration by using the splat-cooling technique with a cooling rate better than 10(6) K/s. Doping with 15 at.% Mo, Pt, Pd, Nb leads to a stabilization of the cubic gamma-U phase, while it requires much higher Zr concentrations (>= 30 at.% Zr).
All U-T splats become superconducting with T-c in the range of 0.61-2.11 K. A good agreement of the experimentally observed specific-heat jump at T-c with that from BCS theory prediction was obtained for U-15 at.% Mo consisting of the gamma-U phase with an ideal bcc A2 structure.