Seeded directional growth of superconducting bulk Y123

We report a fabrication process of textured YBCO grown by seeded directional solidification using a MgO crystal as a seed, which alignes YBCO grains along c-axis with a texturing degree reduction as the distance from the seed increases. Measurements of magnetic hysteresis cycles were performed by means of vibrating sample magnetometry and the critical current density was estimated using Bean's critical state model.