DC characterization of advanced fine-filamentary MgB2 superconducting wires.

MgB2 wires with 114, 192 and 342 filaments of size 14-19 µm manufactured by HyperTech Research, Inc. have been subjected to low temperature DC measurements. R(T), I-V characteristics, critical currents and stress and strain tolerances of these wires differing by filament architecture and filament size sheathed by resistive CuNi alloys were measured and compared with the literature data. It was found that these fine-filamentary wires have high engineering current densities not reduced by twisting up to 10 mm, sufficient strain tolerances and therefore are promising for future applications where minimised AC losses are required due resistive sheaths, thin MgB2 filaments and short twist pitches.

On the Thermal Dynamics of Metallic and Superconducting Wires. Bifurcations, Quench, the Destruction of Bistability and Temperature Blowup

In the present study, a numerical bifurcation analysis is carried out in order to investigate the multiplicity and the thermal runaway features of metallic and superconducting wires in a unified framework. The analysis reveals that the electrical resistance, combined with the boiling curve, are the dominant factors shaping the conditions of bistability—which result in a quenching process—and the conditions of multistability—which may lead to a temperature blowup in the wire. An interesting finding of the theoretical analysis is that, for the case of multistability, there are two ways that a thermal runaway may be triggered. One is associated with a high current value (“normal” runaway) whereas the other one is associated with a lower current value (“premature” runaway), as has been experimentally observed with certain types of superconducting magnets. Moreover, the results of the bifurcation analysis suggest that a static criterion of a warm or a cold thermal wave propagation may be established based on the limit points obtained.

Research of YBCO Superconductor Coating on Austenitic Stainless Steel by Electrophoretic Deposition Method

Yttrium-based superconductors (YBCO) haven’t been widely applied. One reason is because of its high cost. In this study, we replaced the substrate and the fabrication method with lower-cost one, and found the possibility of making high-performance superconducting wires. Specifically, YBCO layer was fabricated by Electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Fabrication by this method needs calcination. The phenomenon that Fe in the substrate diffuses to YBCO layer during calcinating was confirmed. It was caused a decrease in YBCO performance. Therefore, CeO2 as an intermediate layer of substrate and YBCO was fabricated by EPD. It showed the possibility of preventing the spread of Fe. On the other hand, textured CeO2 layer was also fabricated in order to increase the characteristics of superconductor by EPD. And then it was also shown that to obtain a priority orientation is possible by controlling the current value.

Electron Microscopy Imaging of Flux Pinning Defects in YBCO Superconductors

<p>High-temperature superconductors are of great interest because they can transport electrical current without loss. For real-world applications, the amount of current, known as the critical current Ic, that can be carried by superconducting wires is the key figure of merit. Large Ic values are necessary to off-set the higher cost of these wires. The factors that improve Ic (microstructure/performance relationship) in the state-of-the-art coated conductor wires based on YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) are not fully understood. However, microstructural defects that immobilise (or pin) tubes of magnetic flux (known as vortices) inside the coated conductors are known to play a role in improving Ic. In this thesis, the vortex-defect interaction in YBCO superconductors was investigated with high-end transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques using two approaches. First, the effect of dysprosium (Dy) addition and oxygenation temperature on the microstructure and critical current were investigated in detail. Changing only the oxygenation temperature leads to many microstructural changes in pure YBCO coated conductors. It was found that Dy addition reduces the sensitivity of the YBCO to the oxygenation temperature, in particular it lowers the microstructural disorder while maintaining the formation of nanoparticles, which both contribute to the enhancement of Ic. In the second approach, two TEM based techniques (off-axis electron holography and Lorentz microscopy) were used to study the magnetic flux vortices. Vortex imaging was attempted with a TEM operated at 300 kV on both a YBCO crystal as well as a YBCO coated conductor. Many challenges were encountered including sample preparation, inhomogeneity, and geometry, in addition to the need to perform measurements at cryogenic temperatures. Although vortices were not able to be observed in the coated conductors, tentative observation of vortices in a YBCO crystal was made using Lorentz microscopy. Improvements for future electron holography experiments on YBCO at low voltage are suggested. This work represents a pioneering step towards directly imaging vortices in YBCO using more widely available microscopes with the aim of better understanding flux pinning to ultimately boost Ic in superconducting wires.</p>

Electron Microscopy Imaging of Flux Pinning Defects in YBCO Superconductors

<p>High-temperature superconductors are of great interest because they can transport electrical current without loss. For real-world applications, the amount of current, known as the critical current Ic, that can be carried by superconducting wires is the key figure of merit. Large Ic values are necessary to off-set the higher cost of these wires. The factors that improve Ic (microstructure/performance relationship) in the state-of-the-art coated conductor wires based on YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) are not fully understood. However, microstructural defects that immobilise (or pin) tubes of magnetic flux (known as vortices) inside the coated conductors are known to play a role in improving Ic. In this thesis, the vortex-defect interaction in YBCO superconductors was investigated with high-end transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques using two approaches. First, the effect of dysprosium (Dy) addition and oxygenation temperature on the microstructure and critical current were investigated in detail. Changing only the oxygenation temperature leads to many microstructural changes in pure YBCO coated conductors. It was found that Dy addition reduces the sensitivity of the YBCO to the oxygenation temperature, in particular it lowers the microstructural disorder while maintaining the formation of nanoparticles, which both contribute to the enhancement of Ic. In the second approach, two TEM based techniques (off-axis electron holography and Lorentz microscopy) were used to study the magnetic flux vortices. Vortex imaging was attempted with a TEM operated at 300 kV on both a YBCO crystal as well as a YBCO coated conductor. Many challenges were encountered including sample preparation, inhomogeneity, and geometry, in addition to the need to perform measurements at cryogenic temperatures. Although vortices were not able to be observed in the coated conductors, tentative observation of vortices in a YBCO crystal was made using Lorentz microscopy. Improvements for future electron holography experiments on YBCO at low voltage are suggested. This work represents a pioneering step towards directly imaging vortices in YBCO using more widely available microscopes with the aim of better understanding flux pinning to ultimately boost Ic in superconducting wires.</p>

Study on the Sintering and Mg Composition Effect on MgB2 Superconducting Bulks and Wires Synthesized by Powder-in-Sealed-Tube Method

Numerous research efforts aimed at the MgB2 (Magnesium diboride) as a superconducting material due to its higher critical temperature than Nb-based superconductors such as NbTi, Nb3Sn. Nowadays MgB2 is becoming more popular as the candidate to be applied on medical devices and large-scale applications because of its full coherence lengths, improved critical current density and fields, and simple crystal structure. In this study, we fabricated the 4 mm MgB2 superconducting wires by mixing stoichiometric mole ratio of Mg: B with 1.0:2.0 and 1.1:2.0 through the Powder-In-Sealed-Tube (PIST) method to optimize high critical temperature (TC) than the conventional MgB2 bulk and wire. Furthermore, we decreased the diameter of 4 mm to 1.8 mm wire and analyze the effect of critical temperature. The specimens were sintered at a different temperature to investigate the sintering effect of MgB2 superconducting wire. The resistivity versus temperature relationship, surface morphology, and crystal phase was characterized using Cryogenic system, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), and XRD (X-ray Diffractometer), respectively. We optimized the high Tc,onset for the bulk and 4 mm wire compared to other studies that are 42.1K and 40.3K respectively at 800°C sintered temperature. Finally, the results suggest that the stoichiometric ratio of MgB2 exhibited excellent feasibility to prepare conventional MgB2 superconducting wire.

Probing of the internal damage morphology in multilayered high-temperature superconducting wires

The second generation HTS wires have been used in many superconducting components of electrical engineering after they were fabricated. New challenge what we face to is how the damages occur in such wires with multi-layer structure under both mechanical and extreme environment, which also dominates their quality. In this work, a macroscale technique combined a real-time magneto-optical imaging with a cryogenic uniaxial-tensile loading system was established to investigate the damage behavior accompanied with magnetic flux evolution. Under a low speed of tensile strain, it was found that the local magnetic flux moves gradually to form intermittent multi-stack spindle penetrations, which corresponds to the cracks initiated from substrate and extend along both tape thickness and width directions, where the amorphous phases at the tip of cracks were also observed. The obtained results reveal the mechanism of damage formation and provide a potential orientation for improving mechanical quality of these wires.