Development of Long-length Fabrication Technology for High Tc Superconductors Operation in High Magnetic Fields at 77k

68 Development of Long-length Fabrication Technology for High Tc Superconductors Operating in High Magnetic Fields at 77K--UES, Inc., 4401 Dayton-Xenia Road, Dayton, OH 45432-1894; (937) 426-6900 Dr. Rama Nekkanti, Principal Investigator Mr. Francis F. Williams, Jr., Business Official DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-97ER82503 Amount: $74,999 A tremendous amount of energy--several percent of all electricity generated--is needed to ¿push¿ electrical current against the resistance of conventional copper or aluminum wires. So-called ¿superconductors¿ allow for electricity to flow through wires with little or no resistance. Materials that are superconducting at the temperature of liquid nitrogen are known as high-temperature superconductors. One of the recent major advances in high-temperature superconductor technology has been the laboratory demonstration of high currents being carried by superconducting thin films of yttrium-barium-copper-oxide deposited on flexible metallic substrates, such as tape. The challenge is to scale up this demonstration to a long length of high-temperature superconducting tape that can sustain high currents in high magnetic fields at liquid nitrogen temperatures. This Phase I project will address the scale-up challenge by designing an economical, industrial-scale technique that employs a long length, high-temperature superconducting fabrication technology comprised of a sputtered and biaxially textured "seed" layer on a low-cost textured polycrystalline nickel substrate, The properties of the substrate are then further enhanced by using metal organic chemical vapor deposition on the yttrium-barium-copper-oxide film. The Phase I effort will also demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining reproducible high performance in short length superconductors. The processing technology developed in Phase I will then be used for the processing of long length superconductors in Phase II, using currently available continuous reel-to-reel coating systems. The success of this project would result in tape fabrication for high-temperature superconductors that will not only be more cost effective than other processes but will also lead to the best performing superconducting tape of any kind. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: A successful introduction of high-temperature superconductors in the electric power industry will yield revolutionary high performance and energy efficiency in motors, generators, transmission cables, transformers, and fault-current limiters, as well as reduce environmental pollution. Other sectors that can benefit from high-temperature superconductors are electronics, medical diagnostics, transportation, defense, and materials production and fabrication.