THE DEVELOPMENT OF MULTIFILAMENTARY SUPERCONDUCTING COM- POSITES

THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP MULTIFILAMENTARY YBA(2)CU(3)O(7)-X(123) SUPERCONDUCTING COMPOSITES. THE FABRICATION PROCESS IS BASED ON THE SOL-GEL PREPARATION OF CONTINUOUS-FILAMENT 123 MATERIAL BY A MELT SPINNING TECHNIQUE FOLLOWED BY LIQUID METAL INFILTRATION OF MULTIFILAMENT BUNDLES TO FORM ACRYOSTABILIZED SUPERCONDUCTING COMPOSITE. THE IMPORTANT ISSUES FOR HIGH CRITICAL TEMPERATURE (T(C)) SUPERCONDUCTORS IN HIGH CURRENT APPLICATIONS ARE THE CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC ORIENTATION DEPENDENCE OF CRITICAL CURRENT DENSITY (J(C)), SUPERCONDUCTIVITY ACROSS GRAIN BOUNDARIES, MAGNETIC FIELD DEPENDENCE OF J(C), AND THE STABILIZATION REQUIREMENTS OF THE SUPERCONDUCTING STATE. THE SOLGEL PROCESS ADDRESSES THESE ISSUES THROUGH THE USE OF CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC TEXTURING DEVELOPED FROM MOLECULAR LEVEL SOL CHEMISTRY, THE PREPARATION OF THE SUPERCONDUCTOR AS CRYOSTABLE FINE FILAMENTS, AND THE USE OF HIGH ELECTRICAL AND THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY NORMAL STATE METAL MATRICES. THE OVERALL PROJECT OBJECTIVE IS THE FABRICATION OF A MULTIFILAMENTARY SUPERCONDUCTING COMPOSITE COMPRISED OF 123 FILAMENTS IN AN ALUMINUM MATRIX.