Flexible Bulk High Temperature Superconductive (HTS) Material with High Critical Current and High Critical Power Handling Capability

In response the the need of flexible superconductor applications, Concord Analysis, Inc. (CA), proposes the fabrication and development of superconductor wire with high critical current density by modified liquid-phase-epitaxy technique. for superconductor wire formation, the most used powder-in-tube method has encountered problems such as: stoichiometric composition, uniformity, second phases, unreacted particles, grain orientation and cracks. On the other hand, due to the phase relation based upon thermodynamic principles, highly oriented textures of superconducting phase with stoichiometric composition are easily obtained by the liquid-phase-epitaxy technique. The goal of this proposal is to demonstrate manufacturable fabrication and practical application of flexible superconductor wire that can be operated at or above 77 K with appropriate current carrying capability in forms useful for communication systems, power transmission lines, and electronic applications. The microstructure of flexible superconductor wire will be characterized using TEM, SEM, and OM to appropriate properties for superconductivity, composition and compositional uniformity in macro- and microscopic scales. These observations are to be correlated with processing conditions.