Earticle

The superconductor stability theories are consistently described by the integral formula. If the defined stability function is a simple decreasing function, it becomes a cryogenic stability condition. If the stability function has a maximum value and a minimum value, and the maximum value is less than 0, then it is a cold-end recovery condition. If the maximum value is more than 0, it can be shown that the unstable equilibrium temperature, that is, the MPZ (minimum propagation zone) temperature distribution can exist. The MPZ region is divided into two regions according to the current ratio. At the low current ratio, the maximum dimensionless temperature is greater than 1, and at the relatively high current ratio, the maximum dimensionless temperature is less than 1. In order to predict the minimum quench energy, the dimensionless energy was obtained for the MPZ temperature distribution. In particular, it was shown that the dimensionless energy can be obtained even when the MPZ maximum temperature is 1 or more.

Extended Drude model has been used to obtain information of correlations from measured optical spectra of strongly correlated electron systems. The optical self-energy can be defined by the extended Drude model formalism. One can extract the optical selfenergy and the electron-boson spectral density function from measured reflectance spectra using a well-developed usual process, which is consistent with several steps including the extended Drude model and generalized Allen's formulas. Here we used a reverse process of the usual process to investigate the extended Drude analysis when an additional low-energy interband transition is included. We considered two typical electron-boson spectral density model functions for two different (normal and d-wave superconducting) material states. Our results show that the low-energy interband transition might give significant effects on the electron-boson spectral density function obtained using the usual process. However, we expect that the low-energy interband transition can be removed from measured spectra in a proper way if the transition is well-defined or well-known.

We investigate the effect of thermal annealing on MgB2 thin films with thicknesses of 400 and 800 nm, irradiated by 350 keV C-ions with a dose of 1  1015 atoms/cm2. Irradiation by low-energy C-ions produces atomic lattice displacement in MgB2 thin films, improving magnetic field performance of critical current density (Jc) while reducing the superconducting transition temperature (Tc). Interestingly, the lattice displacement and the Tc are gradually restored to the original values with increasing thermal annealing temperature. In addition, the magnetic field dependence of Jc also returns to that of the pristine state together with the restoration of Tc. Because Jc(H) is sensitive to the type and density of the disorder, i.e. vortex pinning, the recovery of Jc(H) in irradiated MgB2 thin films by thermal annealing indicates that low-energy C-ion irradiation on MgB2 thin films primarily causes lattice displacement. These results provide new insights into the application of low-energy irradiation in strategically engineering critical properties of superconductors.

We studied the effect of Fe ion irradiation on the upper critical field (Hc2) of 410 nm single-crystalline MgB2 thin films. The irradiation energy was fixed at 140 keV when we increased the irradiation doses from 1×1014 ion/cm2 to 4×1014 ion/cm2. We found that Hc2 significantly increase with increasing irradiation dose, despite the low irradiation energy. The enhancement of Hc2 could be explained by the reduction of electron mean free path caused by defects induced from irradiation, leading to a decrease of coherence length (ξ). We also discussed the effect of irradiation on temperature-dependent resistivity in details.

With an increasing potential to realize quantum computer, it has recently been an important issue to extend the capabilities of RF cavities to maintain longer coherent quantum system. Using superconductors instead of normal metals allows the quantum system to have a substantially enhanced quality factor. In this paper, surface impedances of superconducting cavities are calculated by the Mattis-Bardeen theory with Python & MATLAB programs. With a simulation of electromagnetic field distribution, the sensitivity to dielectric and surface losses of the superconducting cavities are determined. Then calculations of the resonance frequency and quality factor of three-dimensional superconducting resonators made of Al or Nb are discussed.

Large grain YBCO bulk superconductors are fabricated by the top-seeded melt growth (TSMG) or top-seeded infiltration growth (TSIG) method. Both growth methods use at least one of YBa2Cu3O7−δ, Y2BaCuO5, BaCuO3 pre-reacted precursor powders. However, the synthesis of the pre-reacted powders includes multiple calcination runs which are cost-bearing and time-consuming. In this work, we report the successful growth of single-domain YBCO bulk superconductors directly by using the powder compact that has been pressed from the mixture of Y2O3, BaCO3 and CuO powders without any intermediate grinding step. Single-domain YBCO bulk superconductor has been also prepared by using Y2O3, BaO2 and CuO powders without intermediate grinding step. Investigations on the trapped magnetic field and microstructure of the melt-processed specimen show that the elimination of the repeated processes of calcinations and pulverization has hardly affected on the crystal growth and the magnetic properties of the grown YBCO bulk superconductors. However, it is thought that the presence of residual carbon affects on the size of Y211 particles in melt-processed YBCO bulk superconductor.

In various types of large-scale electrical applications, the number of coil turns in such machines is usually large. Electromagnetic simulation of large-scale superconducting coils (tens to hundreds of turns) is indispensable in the design process of superconducting electrical equipment. However, due to the large scale of the coil and the large aspect ratio of super-conducting material layer in HTS coated conductor, it is usually difficult or even unable to perform 3-D transient electromagnetic simulation. This paper introduces an effective 3-D electromagnetic simulation method for large-scale HTS coated conductor coil based on T-A formulation. The simulation and experimental results show that the 3-D model based on the T-A formulation using homogeneous strategy is more accurate than the traditional 2-D models. The memory usage is not sensitive to the number of turns and this model will be even more superior as the number of turns becomes larger.

To protect the power systems from fault current, the rated protective equipment should be installed. However growth of power system scale and concentration of loads caused the large fault current in power transmission system and distribution system. And capacities of installed protective equipment have been exceeded the due to increase of fault current. This increase is not temporary phenomenon but will be steadily as long as the industry develops. The power system need a counter measurement for safety, so superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) has been received attention as an effective solutions to reduce the fault current. For the above reasons various type SFCL is studied recently. In this paper, the operational characteristics and power burden of trigger type SFCL is studied. The trigger type SFCL has been used for real system research in many countries. And another trigger type SFCL (double quench trigger type SFCL) is also studied. For this paper, short circuit test is performed.

A rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconducting magnet was designed using no-insulation (NI) and multi-width (MW) winding techniques. The proposed magnet is comprised of 58 REBCO-wound single pancake coils with a bore size of 240 mm. When the magnet is operated at 20 K, the center magnetic flux density is designed to reach 3 T with an operational current of 169.55 A, 70 % of its critical current. The critical current was evaluated using experimental data of a short REBCO conductor sample. The designed magnet was then simulated using FEM software with uniform current density model. Magnetic field and mechanical properties of the magnet are evaluated using the simulated data. This magnet was designed as one of the base designs for the project “Tesla-Level Magnets with Large Bore Sizes for Industrial Applications” which was initiated in 2019, and will be wound using REBCO wires with the defect-irrelevant-winding (DIW) technique incorporated to reduce the overall manufacturing cost.

The paper gives the results of the experiments with a model two-section REBCO solenoid cooled by either gaseous helium (GHe) or sub-cooled/solid nitrogen (SN2) in (50-77) K temperature range. The major cooling source was a single-stage cryocooler Sumitomo CH-110 with the cooling power of 175 W and 130 W at 77 K and 50 K respectively. The coil itself was not directly conduction cooled. We compare the time taken by both coolants to obtain the temperature of the magnet of about 50 K and the homogeneity of the temperature distribution within the cryostat. Test results for the coil operation in solid nitrogen together with the comparison of its critical properties in SN2 and GHe are also presented.