Practical applications of YBCO coated conductors (CC) involving superconducting coils will utilize tapes packed together in an arrangement resembling a vertical stack. In such configuration there is an important electromagnetic interaction between the tapes, which strongly influences the loss characteristic of the device.

In the presence of an external magnetic field, the losses are reduced compared to an isolated tape because of the reduced aspect ratio of the conductor and, at least for low fields, because of an effective screening of the central part of the stack. On the contrary, in the case of AC transport current, the losses tend to increase due to the enhancement of the local field caused by the interaction of the self-field produced by neighboring tapes. In practical situations the conductor is usually subjected to both transport current and magnetic field, so that there is a trade-off between the two effects.

In this paper we investigate, both experimentally and by means of finite-element method calculations, the ac loss behavior of a stack composed by a finite number of tapes in different working conditions, and we compare the AC losses to the ones of non-interacting tapes in order to determine if the use of stacked tapes is advantageous from the point of view of power dissipation.

Superconducting MgB2 wires, of different diameter and length, have been produced by the reactive Liquid Mg Infiltration process, also implemented with the addition of extra Mg, to completely fill the internal hole created from the normal infiltration process. The actual wires have an Iron external lining and the metallic Mg internally added has a twofold effect: to avoid Mg deficiency during the reaction and to increase the quenching resistance of the wire. The superconducting characteristics of the wires have been measured either at the liquid He and at the liquid Ne temperatures, on small samples cut from meter long wires. The typical critical current density in self field, at 27.1 K, is about 1000 A/mm2, a value of interest for many power applications. The extension of the manufacturing process to longer wire will be discussed as well as the effect of the metallic lining of the wires on the contact resistance and on the current injection length.

We have investigated the thickness dependence of critical current for YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) film with artificial pinning centers on metallic substrate. Artificial pinning centers were introduced by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using YBCO target including YSZ particles. The film over 1 μm in thickness exhibited with high critical current (Ic) of 40.7A in applied magnetic field of 3T parallel to the c-axis at 77K. This value was 5 times as high as the normal YBCO film without artificial pinning centers. The large Ic enabled us to approach to a practical application in the near future. Furthermore, it was clarified that the columnar nano-structure formed in the film, we call “the bamboo structure”, was a dominant pinning center because each Jc-θ curve of all thick films formed a universal line by the normalization of Jc. In addition, it was also found that YSZ addition has an optimal concentration for pinning by the study of YSZ concentration in the film.

A detailed investigation of multiband superconductivity and Leggett's collective mode in the Mg1-xAlxB2 system was carried out using tunneling and Andreev spectroscopy

We present a time-resolved magneto-optical (MO) imaging study of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) in high-frequency alternating current (AC) regime. The evolution of the magnetic flux density distribution in YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO) thin film samples is studied in small steps of the phase of the applied AC current. The flux distribution at 10 K exhibits instabilities including flux jumps and flux creep. A quantitative analysis of the data allows us to obtain the current density evolution. The current profile changes considerably with the phase differently from the prediction of the critical state model. These observations can be explained by the higher self-field at the sample edge and the effects of flux creep.

Pr doped YBa2Cu3O7-d targets with composition Y1-xPrxBa2Cu3O7-d where × = 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 were prepared from oxide powders and were used to deposit thin films by pulsed laser deposition using conditions previously optimized for pure YBa2Cu3O7-d. The Pr dopant was found to be dispersed throughout the film by secondary ion mass spectrometry and found to have an increased density of nanoparticles on the surface. The pinning force of the doped samples was found to decrease with increasing concentration of Pr; however, at 0.01% concentration the doped film displayed a significant enhancement over pure YBa2Cu3O7-d for nearly the full range of 0 – 9 T.

Tensile strain dependence of electromechanical characteristics of high-current, (Hic) and high-strength, (Hs) type Ag/Bi2223 composite tapes measured at room temperature, RT and 77K is investigated. Mechanical strength of composites revealed strain-hardening signature in Bi2223 filaments due to plastic strain above the elastic limit. Critical current, Ic maintained constant value up to the elastic limit then decreased slowly before finally dropped to about 10% at 0.19% and 0.39% strain, signaling a three-stage limitation. Microstructure observations and electromechanical response of the composites suggest that a limited longitudinal, transverse, interfacial, granular and transgranular microcracks formed during gradual imposition of strain hardening in Bi2223 filaments may be responsible for the slow reduction of Ic in the medium mechanical stage.

Currently a problem of crystal defects nanoengineering for pinning enhancement is extensively studied. A number of efforts were done to realize nanodot-like and particulate-dispersive pins to enhance pinning and critical current density in high-Tc cuprate films and coating. Sometimes some effect of Jc enhancement was achieved. However it is important to comprehend mechanisms of such an enhancement. It is known the ensemble of random point-like pins with size ro of order of coherence length, xab(T), can provide Jc(77 K) not to exceed 5§¹104 A/cm2. Estimations give the maximum pinning force of about for linear extended defects (if ). Here eo is the characteristic vortex energy. A model of vortex pinning and supercurrent limitation is developed and discussed on the base of measurements and analysis of magnetic feld and angle dependencies of Jc(H,¦È) in epitaxial c-oriented YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) films measured by the four-probe transport current technique, low-frequency ac magnetic susceptibility and SQUID magnetometry. Films nanostructure is studied by SEM, TEM, HREM and X-ray diffractometry. Rows of growth-induced out-of-plane edge dislocations (EDs), forming low angle subboundaries (LABs), are shown to play a key role in achievement of the highest critical current density Jc ¡Ý 2 106 A/cm2 at 77 K. The model takes into account the transparency of LABs for supercurrent as well as the pinning of vortex lattice on a network of LABs. Films defect structure parameters, such as a domain size distribution and a mean misorientation angle, are extracted from Jc(H||c)-curves as well as from X-ray diffraction data. Evolution of angle dependencies Jc(¦È) with H is shown to be consistent with the model, supposing dominant pinning on EDs. Strongly pinned vortices parallel to the c-axis exist in strongly tilted magnetic felds up to threshold feld Hp. Below Hp the magnetic induction within a film obeys a simple relation B = Hcos¦È. This feature is shown to explain the absence of the maximum in Jc(¦È)-plot, expecting at H||c in low applied feld. A peak-effect in Jc(H||ab)-dependencies and an angular hysteresis of Jc(¦È) observed in intermediate feld range, are discussed in terms of film thickness, surface quality and orientation of the applied feld. The effects observed are found to be consistent with the developed model. To our mind any nano-, micro- and macro-interfaces, emerging within films or coatings at the deposition process (e.g., nanodot-like and particulate dispersive inclusions) being coherently connected with a YBCO-matrix serve as a source of formation of a multitude of additional dislocations and as a result can promote the essential Jc-enhancement.

Nowadays, many investments have been made in the area of superconductor materials, with the aim to improve theirs potential technological applications. Applications on the energy transport using cables, to get high resolution images in the medicine use high magnetic fields, high speed signals use superconductor devices all of them are in crescent evidence and they are showing that the future is coming and next for this new kind of materials. Obviously that everything of this is possible due to the increasing of research with new materials, where the synthesis, characterization and applications are of the mainly objective of these researches. The production of cable for the energy transport has been in advanced stage as the bulks production is too. However, the film production that to aim at the electronic devices area are not so developed or its still need expensive investments. Thinking about that, we are developing a research where we may increase the relation of cost/benefits. Thereby, we are applying the polymeric precursors method to obtain films that will be used in the built of electronic devices. Thin films (mono and multilayers, on crystalline or metallic substrates, controlled thickness) of the BSCCO system have been obtained from dip coating deposition process with excellent results in terms of preferential orientation, controlled thickness, large area, what may indicate future applications.

Based on these results, we present an electrical circuit and their principal characteristics as superconductor transition (85K), transport current density and structure. DC four probes method, scanning electron microscopy, digital optical microscopy, X-ray diffractometry were some techniques used for the characterization of this superconductor electric device.

The YBCO films were fabricated by TFA-MOD method in route of ¡°211 process¡± and evaluated the phase formation, texture evolution, and critical properties as a function of the humidity firing process. In the fabrication process, Y2Ba1Cu1Ox and Ba3Cu5O8 powders, instead of Y-, Ba- and Cu-based acetates, were used as precursors. In order to evaluate the effect of humidity during the firing process, the films calcined at 430¡É were fired at 775¡É in dry Ar(0%), 4.2%, 8.0%, 12.1%, and 20.0% humidified Ar gas mixed with 1000 ppm oxygen.

We observed that the amount of BaF2 phase was effectively reduced and that a sharp and strong biaxial texture formed under a humidified atmosphere, leading to increased critical properties. The film became denser and the degree of texture and phase purity varied as the humidity increased. For the film fired in 0% humidity, the measured value of Tc(onset) was found to be 82.5 K, but the Tc(zero) could not be measured. When the humidity was increased to 4.2%, the corresponding Tc(onset) and Tc(zero) were increased to 91.5 K and 88.6 K, respectively. For the films in the humidity range of 12.1-20.0%, the critical current was found to be 30 A/cm-width (the corresponding critical current density is 1.54 MA/cm2).