Earticle

We investigate the effect of surface disorder on the lower critical field (Hc1) of MgB2 thin films with a thickness of 850 nm, where the disorder on the surface region is produced by the irradiation of 140 keV Co ions with the dose of 1 X 1014 ions/cm2. The thickness of the damaged region by the irradiation is around 143 nm, corresponding to ~17% of the whole thickness of the film, thereby forming the disordered MgB2 overlayer on the pure MgB2 layer. The magnetic field dependence of magnetization, M(H), for the pristine MgB2 thin film and the film with overlayer is measured at various temperatures, and Hc1 is determined from the difference (ΔM) between the Meissner line and magnetization signal with the criterion of M = 10−3 emu. Intriguingly, the film with the disordered overlayer shows a remarkably large Hc1(0) = 108 Oe compared to the Hc1(0) = 84 Oe of pristine film, indicating that the disordered MgB2 overlayer on the pure MgB2 layer serves to prevent the penetration of vortices into the sample. These results provide new ideas for improving the superheating field to design high-performance superconducting radio-frequency cavities.

We report on the fabrication and measurements of metallic Josephson junctions (JJs) consisting of Au nanoribbon and NbTi superconducting electrodes. The maximum supercurrent density in the junction reaches up to ~ 3 X 105 A/cm2 at 2.5 K, much larger than that of JJ using single-crystalline Au nanowire. Temperature dependence of the critical current exhibits an exponential decay behavior with increasing temperature, which is consistent with a long and diffusive junction limit. Under the application of a magnetic field, monotonous decrease of the critical current was observed due to a narrow width of the Au nanoribbon. Our observatons suggest that NbTi/Au/NbTi JJ would be a useful platform to develop an integrated superconducing quantum circuit combined with the superconducting coplanar waveguide and ferromagnetic π junctions.

We conducted numerical calculations to obtain the critical current as a function of the magnetic flux through the topologically trivial and non-trivial superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), with varying the capacitive and inductive couplings of Josephson junctions (JJs). Our calculation results indicate that a nontrivial SQUID is almost indistinguishable from trivial SQUID, considering the effective capacitance coupling. When the SQUID contains 2π- and 4π-periodic supercurrents, the periodicity of the current-flux relation can be distinguished from the purely trivial or nontrivial SQUID cases, and its difference is sensitive to the relative ratio between the topologically trivial and nontrivial supercurrents. We believe that our calculation results would provide a practical guide to quantitatively measure the portion of the topologically nontrivial supercurrents in experiments.

Applications of REBa2Cu3O7-δ tapes require joints with a simple manufacturing process, low resistance and good mechanical properties. In the present study, we successfully developed a copper diffusion joint between Cu-stabilized REBa2Cu3O7-δ tapes that meets the above requirements without solder simply by applying flux, heat and pressurization. After a 3 min thermocompression process at approximately 150 ℃ and 336 MPa in air, two tapes were directly connected between Cu stabilizers by copper diffusion, which was proven by microstructure analysis. The specific resistivity of the copper diffusion joint reached 5.8 nΩ·cm2 (resistance of 0.4 nΩ for a 306 mm splicing length) at 77 K in the self-field. The axial tensile stress reached 200 N without critical current degradation. The results show promise for the preparation of copper diffusion joints to be used in coils, attached tapes, and wire/cable terminals.

We investigated the formation of superconducting intergrowth phases through the interface reaction both between TlSr2Cu1O5 (Tl-121) and (CrO4)Sr2CuO2, and between Tl -121 and ((CO3)0.5(CrO4)0.5 Sr2CuO2 phases. We found oxychromate intergrowth phases can be formed through the interface reactions and a new superconducting oxychromate compound TlSr4Cu2Oz(CO3)0.5(CrO4)0.5 with Tc above 73 K was discovered based on the results of the interface reactions.

We fabricated MHOS (multi-HTS layers on one substrate) high-temperature superconducting (HTS) REBCO conductors using HTS REBCO coated conductor (CC) A-specimen, which induces an artificial magnetic flux pinning effect, and HTS REBCO CC B-specimen, that does not induce this effect. The superconducting magnetic properties of the fabricated MHOS conductors were examined by measuring their magnetic moment m(H) curves using a physical property measurement system (QD PPMS-14). The critical current density (Jc) characteristics of our four-layered MHOS HTS REBCO conductor specimens such as BAAB, BBBB, and AAAA were lower than those of their two-layered and three-layered counterparts. At a temperature T of 30 K the magnetic flux pinning physical indicator δ values (obtained from the relationship Jc ∝ H-δ) of the three-layer ABA (δ = 0.35) and two-layer AB (δ = 0.43) specimens were found to be significantly lower than those of the four-layer ABBA (δ = 0.51), BAAB (δ = 0.60), AAAA (δ = 0.78) and BBBB (δ = 0.81) structures.

Since the MgB2 superconductor is simply composed of two constituents of Mg and B, its performance can be monitored easily with the change of one ingredient compared to the other. With the powder size of B less than 100 nm, two different sizes of Mg powders are used to investigate the reaction temperature dependence of MgB2 bulk samples. In the range of 630-700oC for the duration of 30 min., the un-reacted Mg is seen only at 630oC with Mg powder size of <5 μm, whereas Mg traces are detected at all the temperature range with Mg powder size of <45 μm. The reaction temperature dependence of MgB2 superconducting transition temperature, Tc, shows little difference whether Mg powder size is large or small in this range except for the 630oC. It is worthy of notice that the critical current densities of MgB2 show higher performance with the small size of Mg compared to the large one at all field ranges. With the Mg powder size of <45 μm, flux pinning is enhanced with decreasing the reaction temperature, whereas flux pinning properties is quite similar in the Mg powder size of <5 μm except for the 630oC, where Mg is left behind after the reaction.

The electrical/thermal stabilities and magnetic field controllability of a no-insulation (NI) high-temperature superconducting magnet are characterized by contact resistance between turn-to-turn layers, and the contact resistance characteristics are determined by properties of conductor surface and winding tension. In order to accurately predict the electromagnetic characteristics of the NI coil in a design stage, it is necessary to control the contact resistance characteristics within the design target parameters. In this paper, the contact resistance and critical current characteristics of a rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) conductor were measured to analyze the effects of surface treatment conditions (roughness and oxidation level) of the copper stabilizer layer in REBCO conductor. The test samples with different surface roughness and oxidation levels were fabricated and conductor surface analysis was performed using scanning electron microscopes, alpha step surface profilers and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Moreover, the contact resistance and critical current characteristics of the samples were measured using the four-terminal method in a liquid nitrogen impregnated cooling environment. Compared with as-received REBCO conductor sample, the contact resistance values of the REBCO conductors, which were post-treated by the scratch and oxidation of the surface of the copper stabilizer layer, tended to increase, and the critical current values were decreased under certain roughness and oxidation conditions.

Since CORC® (Conductor on Round Core) is made of multiple strands of a superconducting tape to conduct a large current, it is difficult to measure the critical current due to the limitation of a capacity of a power supply. The magnetization loss of a superconductor is dependent on the full penetration field. The full penetration field corresponds to the inflection point of the magnetization loss graph with respect to the external magnetic field. We propose a method to predict the critical current of CORC® indirectly. This method uses the measured magnetization losses of various CORC® samples for the prediction of the critical currents.

High temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets for large-capacity energy storage system need to be composed of toroid magnets with high energy density, low leakage magnetic fields, and easy installation. To realize such a large capacity of a toroid HTS magnet, an HTS cable with large current capacity would be preferred because of the limited DC link voltage and instantaneous high power required for compensation of the disturbance in the power grid. In this paper, the optimal operating strategies of the SMES for peak load reduction of the microgrid system were calculated according to the load variation characteristics, and the effect of compensation of the frequency change in microgrid with a SMES were also simulated. Based on the result of the simulation, key design parameters of SMES coil were presented for two cases to define the specification of the HTS cable with large current capacities for winding of HTS toroid coils, which will be need for development of the HTS cable as a future work.

Carbon-based doping to MgB2 superconductor is the simplest approach to enhance the critical current densities under magnetic fields. Carbon quantum dots is synthesized in this work as a carbon provider to MgB2 superconductors. Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone is pyrolyzed and dispersed in dimethylfomamide solvent as a dopant to the mixture of Mg and B powders. Doped MgB2 bulk samples clearly show the decrease of a-axis lattice constant, grain refinements, and broadening of FWHM of diffraction peaks compared to un-doped MgB2 possibly due to the carbon substitution and/or boron vacancy at the boron site in MgB2 lattice. Also, high-field Jc for the doped MgB2 is enhanced significantly with the crossover about 3 T at 5 & 20 K when increasing the doping of carbon quantum dots.

The cryogenic system of RAON which is Korea’s first heavy ion accelerator was numerically modeled and simulated. EcosimPro which is widely used off-the-shelf numerical software for a large scale cryogenic system was used for the simulation. The model of SRF TF cryogenic system, which is the testbed of cryomodule, was firstly established. The integrity of system of SRF TF was confirmed by comparison of simulation and experimental results. The cool-down strategy to minimize the thermal stress of the cavity was simulated and an optimal strategy was established. In addition, the influence of valve and pump control parameters on the cooling time was investigated, and optimal control parameters were also derived. The cryogenic system of SCL3 that is a lowenergy acceleration section including 55 cryomodules, valve boxes, and helium supply lines was also modeled. The soundness of the thermal shield system and interlock system of SCL3 was investigated.

A vacuum system is designed for thermal insulation of a 10 ton/day class air liquefaction cold box for liquid air energy storage. The vacuum system is composed of a turbomolecular pump, a backing pump and vacuum piping for the vacuum pumps. The turbomolecular pump is in combination with the backing pump for pumping capacity. The vacuum piping is designed with system installation conditions, such as distance from the cold box, connections to vacuum pumps and installation space. The capacity of the vacuum pump combination, namely pumping speed, is determined by analysis of the vacuum system, and pump-down time to 1×10-5 mbar is estimated. Vacuum piping conductance, system pumping speed and outgassing rate are calculated for the pumpdown time with the ultimate pumping speed range of the vacuum pump combination of 1400 – 2300 l/s. Although the pump-down time gets shorter by larger capacity vacuum pumps, it mainly depends on target vacuum degree and outgassing rate in the cold box. The pump-down time is estimated as 3 – 6 hours appropriate for cold box operation for the pumping speed range. Considering the outgassing rate has uncertainty, the vacuum pump combination with pumping speed of 1900 l/s is chosen for the vacuum system, which is middle value of the pumping speed range.

Sub-Kelvin cooling has been generally demanded for the fields of low temperature physics, such as physical property measurements, astronomical detection, and quantum computing. The refrigeration system with a small size can be appropriately introduced when the measurement system does not require a high cooling capacity at sub-Kelvin temperature. The dilution refrigerator which is a common method to reach sub-Kelvin, however, must possess a large 3He circulation equipment at room temperature. As alternatives, a sorption refrigerator and a magnetic refrigerator can be adopted for sub-Kelvin cooling. This paper describes those coolers which have been developed by various research groups. Furthermore, a cold-cycle dilution refrigerator of which the size of the 3He circulation system is minimized, is also introduced. Subsequently, a new concept of dilution refrigerator is proposed by our group. The suggested cooler can achieve sub-Kelvin temperature with a small size since it does not require any recuperator and turbo-molecular vacuum pump. Its architecture allows the compact configuration to reach sub-Kelvin temperature by integrating the sorption pump and the magnetic refrigerators. Therefore, it may be suitably utilized in the low temperature experiments requiring low cooling capacity.

REBCO coated conductors are widely used for HTS power application, high magnetic field magnet application, and etc. A thermal stability of the REBCO conductor is essential for the operation of HTS-based device, and thermal conductivities of the conductor are relevant parameters for modeling cryogenic heat transfer. REBCO conductors consist of a REBCO layer, copper layers for electrical stabilization and a hastelloy substrate. At cryogenic temperature, thermal conductivity of copper and silver strongly depend on the purity of the material and the intensity of the magnetic field. In this study, thermal conductivities of the laminated composite structure of REBCO conductor are evaluated by using the thermal network model and the multidimensional heat conduction analysis. As a result, the thermal network model is applicable to REBCO conductors configured in series or parallel alone and multidimensional heat conduction analysis is necessary for complex cases of series and parallel configuration.