DUCTILE HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING ALLOYS

THE BRITTLENESS AND LOW CRITICAL CURRENT DENSITIES OF HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING (HTS) COMPOUNDS ARE SERIOUS IMPEDIMENTS TO COMPONENT FABRICATION AND THE ULTIMATE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THESE MATERIALS. THIS PROJECT EXPLORES AND FURTHER DEVELOPS A NOVEL PROCESSING TECHNIQUE FOR HTS MATERIALS CONCEIVED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO (UCSD). THIS TECHNIQUE IS DESIGNED TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS OF HTS UTILIZATION BY FORMING DUCTILE HTS OXIDE-SILVER ALLOYS THROUGH CONTROLLED OXIDATION FROM PRECURSOR MATERIALS. PHASE I IS DEMONSTRATING THE FEASIBILITY OF A NEW DIAGNOSTIC TOOL (AN ULTRAHIGH VACUUM (UHV)-COMPATIBLE SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM INTERFERENCE DEVICE (SQUID) MAGNETOMETER) THAT, IN CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH UCSD, WILL ALLOW THE CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT AND EVENTUAL COMMERCIALIZATION OF THIS NEW PROCESS. THE PHASE I PROGRAM INCLUDES THE FABRICATION OF VERY HIGH QUALITY ALLOY PRECURSOR MATERIALS AS FILMS, CHARACTERIZATION OF THEIR SUPERCONDUCTING PROPERTIES, ESTABLISHMENT OF A UHV CAPABILITY FOR TESTING SQUIDS, AND AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF METAL-HTS CONTACTS IMPORTANT IN MICROELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS.