Feasibility of Cost-Effective, Long Length, BSCCO 2212 Round Wires, for Very High Field Magnets Beyond 12 Tesla at 4.2 Kelvin

78404S Researchers continue to make progress toward the cost/performance goal for the metal oxide superconductors needed for high energy physics research. This project will forward this goal through the addition of dopants to high temperature superconductor ceramic powders, in order to provide grain refinement and suppress the formation of secondary phases during the thermo-mechanical processing of the high temperature ceramic superconductor/silver composite round wires. In Phase I, several dopant materials will be added to the high temperature ceramic superconductor and tested in a simplified tape composite form to evaluate the effect of the dopant on superconductor performance at 4.2K self field. Promising dopants will be used to evaluate two dopant-addition processes to explore the feasibility of reducing the cost of the dopant addition. The most promising materials will be used to evaluate the performance of composite short wire samples. Phase II will scale-up the dopant process to produce high temperature ceramic superconductor/silver composite round wires in kilometer lengths with performance that meets or exceeds 300 amp/mm2 at 4.2 Kelvin and 12 Tesla in short wire samples. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The improved superconductor should result in very high field magnets for High Energy Physics research and may also have application in the larger market of NMR Spectroscopy and medical MRI.