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High-Tc superconducting materials for electric power applications

Nature volume 414, pages 368–377 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Large-scale superconducting electric devices for power industry depend critically on wires with high critical current densities at temperatures where cryogenic losses are tolerable. This restricts choice to two high-temperature cuprate superconductors, (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox and YBa2Cu3Ox, and possibly to MgB2, recently discovered to superconduct at 39 K. Crystal structure and material anisotropy place fundamental restrictions on their properties, especially in polycrystalline form. So far, power applications have followed a largely empirical, twin-track approach of conductor development and construction of prototype devices. The feasibility of superconducting power cables, magnetic energy-storage devices, transformers, fault current limiters and motors, largely using (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox conductor, is proven. Widespread applications now depend significantly on cost-effective resolution of fundamental materials and fabrication issues, which control the production of low-cost, high-performance conductors of these remarkable compounds.

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Figure 1: Conductor forms of practical superconductors.
Figure 2: Magnetic field–temperature diagram for Nb47wt%Ti, Nb3Sn, MgB2, Bi-2223 and YBCO.
Figure 3: Crystal structures of Nb47wt%Ti, Nb3Sn, MgB2, Bi-2223 and YBCO.
Figure 4: Transport critical current density at 4.2 K measured in thin films of YBCO grown on [001] tilt bicrystal substrates of SrTiO3 (squares37 and filled diamonds44), Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (circles97), and bi-epitaxial junctions (open diamonds98) of varying misorientation angle θ.
Figure 5: Grain boundary structure and its effect on vortex properties.
Figure 6: Magneto-optical image of the flux penetrating into a typical deformation-textured YBCO coated conductor overlaid on a light-microscope image of the underlying Ni substrate.
Figure 7: Magneto-optical images of (left to right) a sintered MgB2 slab63, a YBCO IBAD-coated conductor, and a Bi-2223 monocore tape23.
Figure 8: Colour map of the spatial distribution of the local critical current density in the same monocore Bi-2223 tape imaged in Fig. 7.
Figure 9: Magneto-optical images at 77 K of the self-field produced by an applied transport current in a RABiTS coated conductor sample for which the full-width Jc(77K,0T) was 0.7 MA cm−2.
Figure 10: Spatial distribution of the electric field E(x,y) for the power-law E–J characteristic, E = Ec(J/Jc)n, near a planar defect of length a in a film of width d, n = 20 and a = 0.1d, as calculated in refs 76,77.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to many colleagues for discussions and collaborations. In particular, we thank our present and former Madison colleagues S. Babcock, X. Cai, L. Cooley, G. Daniels, C.-B. Eom, E. Hellstrom, J. Jiang, P. Lee, J. Reeves, M. Rikel and X. Song, and colleagues within the Wire Development Group, especially B. Riley (AMSC), V. Maroni (ANL) and T. Holesinger (LANL). Recent collaborations on coated conductors with T. Peterson and P. Barnes (AFRL), R. Feenstra (ORNL) and D. Verebelyi (AMSC) have been particularly helpful.. R. Blaugher (NREL), G. Grasso (Genoa) and J. Mannhart (Augsburg) supplied material for the tables and figures. Finally we thank the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation for support.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Physics, Applied Superconductivity Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    David Larbalestier, Alex Gurevich, D. Matthew Feldmann & Anatoly Polyanskii

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Larbalestier, D., Gurevich, A., Feldmann, D. et al. High-Tc superconducting materials for electric power applications. Nature 414, 368–377 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35104654

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