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Superconducting superwires.

Author(s) : GRANT P. M.

Type of article: Article

Summary

Despite their marvellous properties, superconductors still do not play much part in our everyday lives. The demand for a more efficient use of electricity has brought a renewed focus on superconductors, materials that could yield us veritable "superwires". Great hopes araised in the last few months with "thick films" of YBCO (Y-123) deposited on flexible metal tapes 5 cm long by 1 cm wide and a few tenths of millimeter thick. In 1992, to improve the properties of these films, IBAD (ion-beam-assisted-deposition) was used to texture a thin buffer layer of yttria-stabilized zirconia during its deposition between the tape substrate and the superconductor. There is also another alternative: Sumito, American Superconductor and Inter magnetics General have commercialized a silver-clad tape of lead-stabilized bismuth-2223, half a millimeter in thickness, half a centimeter in width and avalaible in lengths now exceeding one kilometer. But a number of problems remain and it seems that the future of IBAD/thick-film superconducting tapes involves an economic risk. J.V.

Details

  • Original title: Superconducting superwires.
  • Record ID : 1996-0691
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Nature - vol. 375 - n. 6527
  • Publication date: 1995/05/11
  • Document available for consultation in the library of the IIR headquarters only.

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