Effect of grain refinement on enhancing critical current density and upper critical field in undoped MgB2 ex-situ tapes
A. Malagoli, V. Braccini, M. Tropeano, M. Vignolo, C. Bernini, C. Fanciulli, G. Romano, M. Putti, C. Ferdeghini, E. Mossang, A. Polyanskii, D. C. Larbalestier
Ex-situ Powder-In-Tube MgB2 tapes prepared with ball-milled, undoped powders showed a strong enhancement of the irreversibility field H*, the upper critical field Hc2 and the critical current density Jc(H) together with the suppression of the anisotropy of all of these quantities. Jc reached 104 A/cm2 at 4.2 K and 10 T, with an irreversibility field of about 14 T at 4.2 K, and Hc2 of 9 T at 25 K, high values for not-doped MgB2. The enhanced Jc and H* values are associated with significant grain refinement produced by milling of the MgB2 powder, which enhances grain boundary pinning, although at the same time also reducing the connectivity from about 12% to 8%. Although enhanced pinning and diminished connectivity are in opposition, the overall influence of ball milling on Jc is positive because the increased density of grains with a size comparable with the mean free path produces strong electron scattering that substantially increases Hc2, especially Hc2 perpendicular to the Mg and B planes.
The magnetoresistivity and critical current density of well characterized Si-nanoparticle doped and undoped Cu-sheathed MgB$_{2}$ tapes have been measured at temperatures $T\geq 28$ K in magnetic fields $B\leq 0.9$ T. The irreversibility line $B_{irr}(T)$ for doped tape shows a stepwise variation with a kink around 0.3 T. Such $B_{irr}(T)$ variation is typical for high-temperature superconductors with columnar defects (a kink occurs near the matching field $% B_ϕ$) and is very different from a smooth $B_{irr}(T)$ variation in undoped MgB$_{2}$ samples. The microstructure studies of nanoparticl…
Fe-sheathed MgB2 tapes were prepared through the in situ powder-in-tube technique by 5 at.% ZrSi2, ZrB2 and WSi2 doping, respectively. The doping effect of these compounds on the microstructure and superconducting properties of MgB2 tapes has been investigated by using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, transport measurements and DC susceptibility measurements. Compared to the undoped samples, Jc for all the doped samples were much improved; the best result in terms of Jc was achieved for ZrSi2 doping, by up to a factor of 3.4 at 4.2 K in magnetic fields up to 12 T. Moreover, the…
MoSi2 doped MgB2 tapes with different doping levels were prepared through the in-situ powder-in-tube method using Fe as the sheath material. Effect of MoSi2 doping on the MgB2/Fe tapes was investigated. It is found that the highest JC value was achieved in the 2.5 at.% doped samples, more than a factor of 4 higher compared to the undoped tapes at 4.2 K, 10 T, then further increasing the doping ratio caused a reduction of JC. Moreover, all doped tapes exhibited improved magnetic field dependence of Jc. The enhancement of JC-B properties in MoSi2 doped MgB2 tapes is attributed to good grain link…
MgB2/Fe tapes with 2.5-15 at.% ZrB2 additions were prepared through the in situ powder-in-tube method. Compared to the pure tape, a significant improvement in the in-field critical current density Jc was observed, most notably for 10 at.% doping, while the critical temperature decreased slightly. At 4.2 K, the transport Jc for the 10 at.% doped sample increased by more than an order of magnitude than the undoped one in magnetic fields above 9 T. Nanoscale segregates or defects caused by the ZrB2 additions which act as effective flux pinning centers are proposed to be the main reason for the im…
MgB2 monofilamentary nickel-sheated tapes and wires were fabricated by means of the ex-situ powder-in-tube method using either high-energy ball milled and low temperature synthesized powders. All sample were sintered at 920 C in Ar flow. The milling time and the revolution speed were tuned in order to maximize the critical current density in field (Jc): the maximum Jc value of 6 x 10e4 A/cm2 at 5 K and 4 T was obtained corresponding to the tape prepared with powders milled for 144h at 180rpm. Vorious synthesis temperature were also investigated (730-900 C) finding a best Jc value for the wire …
Nanocarbon-doped Fe-sheathed MgB2 tapes with different doping levels were prepared by the in situ powder-in-tube method. Compared to the undoped tapes, Jc for all the C-doped samples was enhanced by more than an order of magnitude in magnetic fields above 9 T. At 4.2 K, the transport Jc for the 5 at% doped tapes reached 1.85x104 A/cm2 at 10 T and 2.8x103 A/cm2 at 14 T, respectively. Moreover, the critical temperature for the doped tapes decreased slightly. Transmission electron microscopy showed a number of intra-granular dislocations and the dispersed nanoparticles embedded within MgB2 grains…
We fabricated in situ powder-in-tube processed MgB2/Fe tapes using aromatic hydrocarbon of benzene, naphthalene, and thiophene as additives, and investigated the superconducting properties. We found that these aromatic hydrocarbons were very effective for increasing the Jc values. The Jc values of 20mol% benzene-added tapes reached 130A/mm2 at 4.2K and 10T. This value was almost comparable to that of 10mol% SiC-added tapes and about four times higher than that of tapes with no additions. Microstructure analyses suggest that this Jc enhancement is due to both the substitution of carbon for boro…
SmFeAsO1-xFx (Sm1111) tapes were prepared by an ex-situ powder-in-tube method with a Sn-presintering process. Scanning electron microscopy revealed apparent difference in microstructure between Sn-presintered tapes and the previously reported polycrystalline Sm1111 bulk, since Sn has reduced FeAs wetting phase and filled the voids between Sm1111 grains. The Sn-presintered tapes showed significant enhanced field dependences of transport Jc compared with Sn-added tapes. A highest transport critical current density (Jc) of 3.45x10^4 A cm-2 at 4.2 K and self-field is achieved. Magneto-optical (MO)…
We report on the superconducting performance of the ex-situ SiC doped MgB2 monofilamentary tapes. Polycrystalline powders of MgB2 doped with 5 and 10 wt% SiC were synthesized by conventional solid-state reaction route and characterized for their superconducting performance. It is found that superconducting parameters i.e. upper critical field (Hc2), irreversibility field (Hirr) and critical current density (Jc) are all improved significantly with SiC addition. Also it was found that relatively lower synthesis temperature (700 C) resulted in further improved superconducting parameters. As synth…
We report that high transport critical current density exceeding 104 A/cm2 at 4.2 K and 10 T can be obtained with good reproducibility for Ag sheathed (Ba,K)Fe2As2 (Ba 122) tapes by modifying the ex-situ powder-in-tube (PIT) method. The process involves cycles of the cold deformation and subsequent heat treatment. The intermediate cycles of flat rolling and heat treatment produce uniform fine-grained structure, resulting in an enhancement of transport Jc in applied magnetic fields. However, the rolled tapes contain cracks running traverse to the tape axis, which still limit the current pass al…
In the present paper we report an in-situ high-energy X-ray diffraction analysis of MgB2 tapes during the preparation process. The experiment was performed in a specifically designed furnace working in reducing atmosphere, compatible with the Laue diffraction condition. The MgB2 synthesis was realized starting from MgH2 and amorphous B in powder form as precursors, varying reaction temperature and testing different cooling processes. We analyzed both the MgB2 synthesis and the sintering process of tapes prepared with these powders. Phase evolution, micro and crystallographic structure were mon…
The effect of nano-C doping on the microstructure and superconducting properties of Fe-sheathed MgB2 tapes prepared through the in-situ powder-in-tube method was studied. Heat treatment was performed at a low temperature of 650C for 1 h. Scanning electron microscopy investigation revealed that the smaller grain size of MgB2 in the samples with the C-doping. Further, the a-axis lattice parameter and transition temperature decreased monotonically with increasing doping level, which is due to the C substitution for B. High critical current density Jc values in magnetic fields were achieved in the…
We found that the transport Jc of the ex-situ PIT processed (Ba,K)Fe2As2 (Ba-122) wire with single Ag sheath can be significantly enhanced by repeating the combined process of rolling and heat treatment. The transport Jc (4.2 K and 10 T) of 4.4 x 103 A/cm2 (Ic =15.7 A) was obtained for a thin tape of 0.3 mm in thickness, which is the highest value reported so far for the PIT processed 122 wires and tapes with a Ag sheath and processed by a conventional route. The measurement by a hybrid magnet showed that Jc-H curve maintains very small field dependence up to the strong magnetic field of 28 T …
Among the recently discovered Fe-based superconducting compounds, the (K,Ba)Fe2As2 phase is attracting large interest within the scientific community interested in conductor developments. In fact, after some years of development, critical current densities Jc of about 105 A/cm2 at fields up to more than 10 T have been obtained in powder in tube (PIT) processed wires and tapes. Here we explore the crucial points in the wire/tape fabrication by means of the ex-situ PIT method. We focus on scaling up processes which are crucial for the industrial fabrication. We analyzed the effects on the micros…
We investigated the effect of nanoscale-C doping on the critical current density Jc and irreversibility field Birr of Fe-sheathed MgB2 tapes prepared by the in-situ powder-in-tube method. The tapes were heat treated at 600-950C for 1 h. Higher values of Jc and Birr were seen for 5 at.%C-doped MgB2 tapes at higher sintering temperatures, where substantial substitution of boron for carbon occurred. The C-doped samples sintered at 950C showed the highest Birr, for example, at 4.2 K, the Birr reached 22.9 T. In particular, at 20 K, Birr for the C-doped tape achieved 9 T, which is comparable to the…
Fe-sheathed MgB2 tapes with cheap stearic acid, Mg stearate and Zn stearate doping were prepared through the in situ powder-in-tube method. It is found that Jc, Hirr, and Hc2 were significantly enhanced by doping. Compared to the pure tapes, Jc for all the doped samples was improved by more than an order of magnitude in a high-field regime. At 4.2 K, the transport Jc reached 2.02x10^4 A/cm^2 at 10 T for the Zn stearate doped tapes and 3.72x10^3 A/cm^2 at 14 T for the stearic acid doped samples, respectively, equivalent to that of tapes achieved by nanoscale SiC or carbon doping. The improvemen…
Fe-clad MgB2 long tapes have been fabricated using a powder-in-tube technique. An Mg + 2B mixture was used as the central conductor core and reacted in-situ to form MgB2. The tapes were sintered in pure Ar at 800 ^(o) C for 1 h at ambient pressure. SEM shows a highly dense core with a large grain size of 100 micron. The Fe clad tape shows a sharp transition with transition width of 0.2 K and Tc0 at 37.5 K. We have achieved the highest transport critical current reported so far at 1.6 times 10^(4) A/cm^2 for both 29.5 K in 1 Tesla and 33 K in null field. R-T and critical current were also measu…
In this paper we report a new synthesis route to produce boron powders characterized as being amorphous and having very fine particle size. This route has been developed to improve the performances of superconducting MgB2 powders, which can be directly synthesized from this nano-structured boron precursor by following the ex-situ or the in-situ P.I.T. method during the manufacturing of tapes, wires and cables. All the procedure steps are explained and the chemical-physical characterization of the boron powder, using x-ray diffraction (Xrd), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission e…
The critical currents of MOD/RABiTS and PLD/IBAD coated conductors have been measured as a function of magnetic field orientation and compared to films grown on single crystal substrates. By varying the orientation of magnetic field applied in the plane of the film, we are able to determine the extent to which current flow in each type of conductor is percolative. Standard MOD/RABiTS conductors have also been compared to samples whose grain boundaries have been doped by diffusing Ca from an overlayer. We find that undoped MOD/RABiTS tapes have a less anisotropic in-plane field dependence than …
We report the realization of grain alignment in Sn-added Sr1-xKxFe2As2 superconducting tapes prepared by ex-situ powder-in-tube method. At 4.2 K, high transport critical current densities Jc of 2.5x10^4 A/cm^2 (Ic = 180 A) in self-field and 3.5x10^3 A/cm^2 (Ic = 25.5 A) in 10 T have been measured. These values are the highest ever reported so far for Fe-based superconducting wires and tapes. We believe the superior Jc in our tape samples are due to well textured grains and strengthened intergrain coupling achieved by Sn addition. Our results demonstrated an encouraging prospect for application…
We report the temperature dependence of the transport critical current density (Jc) in textured Sr1-xKxFe2As2/Fe (Sr122) tapes fabricated by an ex situ powder-in-tube process. Critical currents were measured in magnetic fields up to 0-15 T and/or the temperature range 4.2-30 K by using a dc four-probe method. It was found that textured Sr122 tapes heat-treated at low temperatures showed higher transport Jc performance due to much improved intergrain connections. At temperatures of 20 K, easily obtained using a cryocooler, Jc reached ~ 10^4 A/cm^2 in self field, which is the highest transport v…
Fe-clad BaxK1-xFe2As2 superconducting tapes were fabricated by the ex situ powder-in-tube method combined with a short high-temperature annealing technique. The effect of annealing time and different dopants on the transport properties of the BaxK1-xFe2As2 tapes were systematically studied. By co-doping with Ag and Pb, the transport critical current density Jc of BaxK1-xFe2As2 tapes was significantly improved in whole field region and the highest transport Jc was up to 1.4x10^4 A/cm^2 (Ic=100 A) at 4.2K in self field. It is proposed that the superior Jc in the co-doped samples are due to the c…
Ag-sheathed CaKFe4As4 superconducting tapes have been fabricated via the ex-situ powder-in-tube method. Thermal and X-ray diffraction analyses suggest that the CaKFe4As4 phase is unstable at high temperatures. It decomposes into the CaAgAs phase which reacts strongly with the silver sheath. We therefore sintered the tape at 500C and obtain a transport critical current density Jc(4.2 K, 0 T)~ 2.7x10^4 A/cm2. The pinning potential derived from magnetoresistance measurements is one order of magnitude lower than that of the (Ba/Sr)1-xKxFe2As2 tapes. Combining with the scanning electron microscopy …
The effect of the quality of starting powders on the microstructure and superconducting properties of in-situ processed Fe-sheathed MgB2 tapes has been investigated. Three different types of commercial atomized spherical magnesium powder and two different purities of amorphous boron powder were employed. When using the 10-micrometre magnesium as precursor powders, the Mg reacted with boron more uniformly and quickly, thus the uniformity of the fabricated MgB2 was improved and the grain size of the MgB2 was decreased, hence significant critical current density (Jc) enhancements were achieved fo…
A significant enhancement of Jc and Hirr in MgB2 tapes has been achieved by the in situ powder-in-tube method utilizing hollow carbon spheres (HCS) as dopants. At 4.2 K, the transport Jc for the 850C sintered samples reached 3.1x10^4, and 1.4x10^4 A/cm^2 at 10 and 12 T, respectively, and were better than those of optimal nano-SiC doped tapes. Furthermore, the Hirr for doped sample was raised up to 16.8 T at 10 K due to the carbon substitution effect. The results demonstrate that HCS is one of the most promising dopants besides nano-carbon and SiC for the enhancement of current capacity for MgB…
Improving transport current has been the primary issue for practical application of superconducting wires and tapes. However, the porous nature of powder-in-tube (PIT) processed iron-based superconducting tapes is thought to be one of the important reasons for the low Jc values. In this work, the superconducting core density of ex-situ Sr0.6K0.4Fe2As2 tapes was significantly improved by employing a simple hot pressing as an alternative route for final sintering. At 4.2 K, the transport Jc values showed excellent values of 5.1x10^4 A/cm^2 at 10 T and 4.3x10^4 A/cm^2 at 14 T, respectively, which…
MgB2 wires and tapes suffer from a limitation of the transport current densities, especially at low field, due to an unsufficient thermal stabilization caused by hot spots from a non-homogeneous microstructure, the presence of secondary phases and voids. For the preparation of MgB2 wires and tapes two different precursor routes, using MgB2 (ex-situ process) or Mg + B (in-situ process) are applied. The in-situ approach allows variation of many parameters in the wire preparation and the improvement of this approach is the central topic of this paper. We present an improved in-situ approach, the …
Polycrystalline MgB2 samples with 10 wt % silicon powder addition were prepared by an in-situ reaction process. Two different Si powders, one with coarse (44 mm) and the other with nano-size (<100 nm) particles were used for making samples. The phases, microstructures, and flux pinning were characterized by XRD, TEM, and magnetic measurements. It was observed that the samples doped with nano-sized Si powder showed a significantly improved field dependence of the critical current over a wide temperature range compared with both undoped samples and samples with coarse Si added. Jc is as high as …
We report significant transport critical currents firstly achieved in Sr0.6K0.4Fe2As2 wires and tapes with a Tc = 34 K, which were fabricated through an in-situ powder-in-tube process. Silver was used as a chemical addition as well as a sheath material. Transport measurements were performed by a standard four-probe resistive method. All the wire and tape samples have shown transport properties. Critical current density Jc was enhanced upon silver addition, and at 4.2 K, a best Jc of ~1200 A/cm^2 (Ic = 9 A) was achieved for 20 % silver added tapes, which is the highest in iron-based wires and t…
From the application point of view, large critical current densities Jc (H) for superconducting wires are required, preferably for magnetic fields higher than 5 T. Here we show that strong c-axis textured Sr1-xKxFe2As2 tapes with nearly isotropic transport Jc were fabricated by an ex-situ powder-in-tube (PIT) process. At 4.2 K, the Jc values show extremely weak magnetic field dependence and reach high values of 1.7x10^4 A/cm^2 at 10 T and 1.4x10^4 A/cm^2 at 14 T, respectively, these values are by far the highest ever reported for iron based wires and approach the Jc level desired for practical…
In recent years, numerical models have become popular and powerful tools to investigate the electromagnetic behavior of superconductors. One domain where this advances are most necessary is the 3D modeling of the electromagnetic behavior of superconductors. For this purpose, a benchmark problem consisting of superconducting cube subjected to an AC magnetic field perpendicular to one of its faces has been recently defined and successfully solved. In this work, a situation more relevant for applications is investigated: a superconducting parallelepiped bulk with the magnetic field parallel to tw…
In this letter, we report the results of transport Jc of solenoid coils upto 100 turns fabricated with Cu-sheathed MgB2 wires using a wind-reaction in-situ technique. Despite the low density of single core and some reaction between Mg and Cu-sheath, our results demonstrate the decrease in transport Jc with increasing length of MgB2 wires is insignificant. Solenoid coils with diameter as small as 10 mm can be readily fabricated using a wind-reaction in-situ technique. The Jc of coils is essentially the same as in the form of straight wires. A Jc of 133,000 A/cm2 and 125,000 A/cm2 at 4 K and sel…
We report on significant flux pinning enhancement in MgB2/Fe tapes that has been easily obtained by a simple and cheap route using acetone as both an efficient ball-milling medium and liquid additive through the in situ method. Results showed that the highly reactive C released from the decomposition of the acetone substituted into B sites, accompanied by the grain refinement effect due to the acetone doping. At 4.2 K, the transport Jc for the 5 wt % acetone doped tapes sintered at 700C reached up to 2.4x10^4 A/cm^2 at 10 T, which is even higher than that of the nano-C added samples heated at …
Iron-based superconductors have been considered to be very promising in high-field applications, for which multifilamentary wire and tape conductors with high mechanical strength are essential. In this work, 7-,19- and 114-filament Sr0.6K0.4Fe2As2 (Sr-122) superconducting wires and tapes with silver as matrix and iron as outer reinforcing sheath were produced by the ex situ powder-in-tube method. The mass densities of Sr-122 phase in 7- and 19-filament conductors were investigated by microhardness characterization, which revealed a positive correlation between hardness and transport critical c…
We consider the magnetic properties of high Tc cuprates from a gauge theory point of view, with emphasis on the underdoped regime. Underdoped cuprates possess certain antiferromagnetic correlations, as evidenced, for example, by different temperature dependence of the Cu and O site NMR relaxation rates, that are not captured well by slave boson mean field theories of the t-J model. We show that the inclusion of gauge fluctuations will remedy the deficiencies of the mean field theories. As a concrete illustration of the gauge-fluctuation restoration of the antiferromangetic correlation and the …
The current distribution and the AC loss in a composite superconducting tape containing a layer from magnetic material is calculated and compared with experiments, showing a very good agreement. The situations of an alternating uniform applied field or a transport current are studied. The newly developed numerical model is an approximation to the critical state model, adapted for the applicability to commercial finite elements codes that solve the vector potential. Substantial feature of this procedure is that it can be carried out in the case when the critical current density in superconducto…
We have investigated the microstructure, normal-state electrical connectivity, and critical current density of ex-situ MgB2 polycrystalline bulks prepared by systematically varying the sintering conditions under low pressure. Samples heated at a high temperature of ~900°C for a long period showed an increased packing factor, a larger intergrain contact area, and a significantly enhanced electrical connectivity, all of which indicate solid-state self-sintering of MgB2. Sintered ex-situ MgB2 bulks from a laboratory-made ball-milled powder exhibited a greatly enhanced connectivity of 28%, which i…
For an accurate estimation of the AC losses of superconducting triaxial cables, we present a 2D model capable to provide a global assessment of multi-layer triaxial cables, validated against the AC-losses on single-phase cables provided by the VNIIKP Cable Institute. Four models are presented, the first being a single-phase cable of 50 tapes and the others being three triaxial cables made of up to 135 coated conductors distributed in up to 9 layers. A systematic study is devised, where the number of layers per phase increases from 1 to 3, with at least 14 tapes distributed across each layer of…
HTS are feasible for hight power applications because of the smaller consumption demand of the cooling system in comparison to the whole power device. Real industral devices contain superconductors with 2D and 3D geometry (coated conductors tapes represent an example of 2D geometry, since the superconducting layer is very thin). In order to know the feasibility and the optimum design of a certain device, there is a need of software tools. These Numerical tools have hight requirements like fast computation, a physical model for any E(J) relation of the superconductor and any complex geometry su…
Creating complex flux configurations by superposing a dc current or magnetic field onto the ac current in a type II superconducting tape should lead to a variety of peculiar behaviors. An example is the appearance of the Clem valley, a minimum in the ac losses as a function of the dc bias amplitude, which has been theoretically studied by LeBlanc et al., in the continuation of Clem's calculations. These situations have been investigated by applying a dc current to a silver-gold sheathed Bi-2223 tape at 77 K (critical current 29 A), in addition to the usual ac transport current. The ac losses w…
For example in some supercondcuting generators, motors and power transmission cables the superconductor experiences a changing magnetic field in a DC background. Simulating the losses caused by this AC ripple field is an important task from the application design point of view. In this work, we compare two formulations, the $H$-formulation and the minimum magnetic energy variation (the MMEV-formulation), based on the eddy current model (ECM) and the critical state model (CSM), respectively, in simulating ripple field losses in a DC biased coated conductor tape. Furthermore, we compare our simu…
Seven years after the discovery of superconductivity in magnesium diboride, the fundamental superconducting properties of this compound are well known and the peculiar current transport in polycrystalline materials is essentially understood. Based on this knowledge the ultimate performance of wires or tapes at high magnetic fields will be predicted and compared to state-of-the-art materials and to other superconductors. The key parameter for high field applications is the upper critical field, which can be strongly enhanced by impurity scattering. This fundamental property might be further opt…
Polycrystalline MgB2-xCx samples with x=0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 nano-particle carbon powder were prepared using an in-situ reaction method under well controlled conditions to limit the extent of C substitution. The phases, lattice parameters, microstructures, superconductivity and flux pinning were characterized by XRD, TEM, and magnetic measurements. It was found that both the a-axis lattice parameter and the Tc decreased monotonically with increasing doping level. For the sample doped with the highest nominal composition of x=0.4 the Tc dropped only 2.7K. The nano-C-doped samples showed an …
Roebel cables made of HTS coated conductors are regarded as promising cables for winding applications in virtue of their large engineering current density and low losses. The composing meander-shaped strands are assembled very tightly into the cable, which results in a strong electromagnetic interaction between them. This interaction profoundly influences the effective self-field critical current ($I_c$) of the cable, which is much lower than the sum of the $I_c$s of the composing strands. Also the AC losses are influenced by the material's properties and by the geometrical configuration of th…
