Low AC loss high transport current HTS cables (>1 kA) are required for application in transformers, generators and are considered for future generations of fusion reactors coils. 2G coated conductors are suitable candidates for high field application at quite high operation temperatures of 50-77 K, which is crucial precondition for economical cooling costs. As a feasibility study we present the first ROEBEL bar cable of approx. 35 cm length made from industrial DyBCO coated conductor (THEVA GmbH, Germany). Meander shaped ROEBEL strands of 4 mm width with a twist pitch of 180 mm were cut from 10 mm wide CC tapes using a specially designed tool. The strands carried in average 157 Amps/cm-width DC and were assembled to a subcable with 5 strands and a final cable with 16 strands. The 5 strand cable was tested and carried a transport current of > 300 Amps DC at 77 K, equivalent to the sum of the individual strand transport critical currents. The 16 strand cable carried 500 A limited through heating effects and non sufficient stabilisation and current sharing. A pulse current load indicated a current carrying potential of > 1 kA for the 16 strand cable. EUCAS2005, 11th.-15th.Sept.2005, Vienna Austria, to be published in SUST, special issue

The addition of mixed double perovskite Ba2Y(Nb/Ta)O6 (BYNTO) to YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) thin films leads to a large improvement of the in-field current carrying capability. For low deposition rates, BYNTO grows as well-oriented, densely distributed nanocolumns. We achieved a pinning force density of 25 GN/m3 at 77 K at a matching field of 2.3 T, which is among the highest values reported for YBCO. The anisotropy of the critical current density shows a complex behavior whereby additional maxima are developed at field dependent angles. This is caused by a matching effect of the magnetic fields c-axis component. The exponent N of the current-voltage characteristics (inversely proportional to the creep rate S) allows the depinning mechanism to be determined. It changes from a double-kink excitation below the matching field to pinning-potential-determined creep above it.

High temperature superconductors (HTSs), like for instance REBCO (RE=rare earth) coated conductors, are of high potential for building large superconducting magnets. Some magnets, such as accelerator magnets, require the use of superconducting cables to allow fast ramping, and low magnetization loss to mitigate field quality issues. One of the methods to lower ac loss is to divide the superconducting layer in the tape into filaments. In this paper, conductors with copper stabilization for practical applications are laser scribed into narrow filaments. Striated tapes are then wound into conductor on round core (CORC ® ) cables. The critical current and magnetization ac loss of single tapes were measured. We found that the stabilizing copper layer causes difficulties for laser scribing. The degradation of the critical current is more pronounced than in the case of non-stabilized tapes. The selection of the number of filaments is therefore a compromise between critical current degradation and reduction of ac loss. Based on the results obtained from single tape experiments, the optimum number of filaments in 4 mm wide tapes was chosen, and CORC ® cables with 2, 3 and 4 layers of tapes with and without filaments were manufactured. Magnetization ac loss measurements at 77 K showed a reduction of ac loss in the cables with filaments. This reduction corresponds almost to the number of filaments. Measurement at different frequencies also showed that the coupling loss in CORC ® cables with a short twist-pitch is relatively small in comparison to hysteretic loss.

In this work we demonstrate that the use of striated tapes from coated conductors (CCs) significantly reduces the dissipation of a cable made of tapes wound helically on a round core when it is exposed to AC magnetic field. The coupling loss can vanish provided that the striations ensure electrical insulation between filaments and the cable length corresponds to an entire number of lay pitches. In our study we compare the magnetization loss in two cable models exposed to magnetic field perpendicular to their longitudinal axis. The overall geometry of the models was identical: each consisted of three tapes 4 mm wide that were placed with a pitch of 50 mm in a single layer on the 8 mm diameter round core. The cable length was designed to reach two complete tape pitches. In the first cable (the reference cable) tapes without striation were used; the second cable was prepared using similar tapes but striated to five filaments by laser processing. The AC loss was measured for cables without terminations as well as with low resistance terminations; this latter configuration simulates the conditions in a magnet winding. Our experiments have clearly shown the loss behavior expected in the regime of uncoupled filaments. In particular, at AC fields of 0.1 T amplitude the loss in the cable from striated tapes is five times lower than in the reference cable. Numerical models have explained the experimentally observed cable behavior in the whole range of AC fields.

To reduce the fabrication costs while maximizing the superconducting and pinning properties of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) nanocomposite films, the drop-on-demand ink-jet printing technique was used to deposit colloidal YBCO inks onto LaAlO3 substrates. These inks containing preformed HfO2 nanocrystals were carefully adjusted, prior to the jettability, as the droplet formation depends on the rheological properties of the inks themselves. After carefully adjusting printing parameters, 450-nm thick pristine YBCO films with a self-field critical current density (Jc) of 2.7 MA cm−² at 77 K and 500-nm thick HfO2-YBCO nanocomposite films with a self-field Jc of 3.1 MA·cm−² at 77 K were achieved. The final HfO2-YBCO nanocomposite films contained dispersed BaHfO3 particles in a YBCO matrix due to the Ba2+ reactivity with the HfO2 nanocrystals. These nanocomposite films presented a more gradual decrease of Jc with the increased magnetic field. These nanocomposite films also showed higher pinning force densities than the pristine films. This pinning enhancement was related to the favorable size and distribution of the BaHfO3 particles in the YBCO matrix.