Superconducting MgB2 strands with nanometer-scale SiC additions have been investigated systematically using transport and magnetic measurements. A comparative study of MgB2 strands with different nano-SiC addition levels has shown C-doping-enhanced critical current density Jc through enhancements in the upper critical field, Hc2, and decreased anisotropy. The critical current density and flux pinning force density obtained from magnetic measurements were found to greatly differ from the values obtained through transport measurements, particularly with regards to magnetic field dependence. The differences in magnetic and transport results are largely attributed to connectivity related effects. On the other hand, based on the scaling behavior of flux pinning force, there may be other effective pinning centers in MgB2 strands in addition to grain boundary pinning.
Resistive transition measurements are reported for Magnesium diboride strands with SiC dopants. The SiC was added as 10 mol of SiC to 90 mol of binary magnesium diboride. Three different SiC powders were used, the average particle sizes were 200 nm, 30 nm, and 15 nm. The strands were heat treated for times ranging from 5 to 30 minutes at temperatures from 675 to 900. Strands with 200 nm size SiC additions had Hirr and Bc2 which maximized at 25.4 T and 29.7 T after heating at 800C for 30 minutes. The highest values were seen for a strand with 15 nm SiC heated at 725C for 30 minutes which had a …
By doping MgB_2 superconductor with SiC nano-particles, we have successfully introduced pinning sites directly into the crystal lattice of MgB_2 grains (intra-grain pinning). It became possible due to the combination of counter-balanced Si and C co-substitution for B, leading to a large number of intra-granular dislocations and the dispersed nano-size impurities induced by the substitution. The magnetic field dependence of the critical current density was significantly improved in a wide temperature range, whereas the transition temperature in the sample MgB_2(SiC)_x having x = 0.34, the highe…
Critical current density was measured at 4.2 K for MgB2 strands with and without SiC additions. In some cases measurements were performed on longer (1 m) samples wound on barrels, and these were compared to magnetic measurements. Most measurements were performed on short samples at higher fields (up to 18 T). It was found that in-situ processed strands with 10% SiC additions HT at 700-800C show improved Hr and Fp values as compared to control samples, with Hr increasing by 1.5 T. At 900C even larger improvements are seen, with Hr reaching 18 T and Fp values maximizing at 20 GN/m3.
Doping of MgB2 by nano-SiC and its potential for improvement of flux pinning was studied for MgB2-x(SiC)x/2 with x = 0, 0.2 and 0.3 and a 10wt% nano-SiC doped MgB2 samples. Co-substitution of B by Si and C counterbalanced the effects of single-element doping, decreasing Tc by only 1.5K, introducing pinning centres effective at high fields and temperatures and enhancing Jc and Hirr significantly. Compared to the non-doped sample, Jc for the 10wt% doped sample increased by a factor of 32 at 5K and 8T, 42 at 20K and 5T, and 14 at 30K and 2T. At 20K, which is considered to be a benchmark operating…
We investigated the effect of SiC nano-particle doping on the crystal lattice structure, critical temperature T_c, critical current density J_c, and flux pinning in MgB_2 superconductor. A series of MgB_{2-x}(SiC)_{x/2} samples with x = 0 to 1.0 were fabricated using in-situ reaction process. The contraction of the lattice and depression of T_c with increasing SiC doping level remained rather small due to the counter-balanced effect of Si and C co-doping. The high level Si and C co-doping allowed the creation of intra-grain defects and highly dispersed nano-inclusions within the grains which c…
The critical current densities of MgB2 monofilamentary strands with and without SiC additions were measured at 4.2 K. Additionally, magnetic Jc at B = 1 T was measured from 4.2 K to 40 K. Various heat treatment times and temperatures were investigated for both short samples and small helical coils. SiC additions were seen to improve high field transport Jc at 4.2 K, but improvements were not evident at 1 T at any temperature. Transport results were relatively insensitive to heat treatment times and temperatures for both short samples and coils in the 700C to 900C range.
We study the effect of nano(n)-SiC addition on the crystal structure, critical temperature (Tc), critical current density (Jc) and flux pinning in MgB2 superconductor. X-ray diffraction patterns show that all the samples have MgB2 as the main phase with very small amount of MgO, further with n-SiC addition the presence of Mg2Si is also noted and confirmed by SEM & EDS. The Tc value for the pure MgB2 is 18.9K under 8 Tesla applied field, while is 20.8K for the 10-wt % n-SiC doped sample under the same field. This points towards the increment in upper-critical field value with n-SiC addition. Th…
Transport critical current densities and n-values were measured at 4.2 K in fields up to 15 T on 7, 19, and 37-stack multifilamentary MgB2 strands made using an in-situ route. Some strands included SiC additions (particle size 30 nm), while in others Mg-rich compositions were used. Two basic multifilamentary variants were measured, the first had Nb filamentary barriers, the second had Fe filamentary barriers. All samples incorporated stabilizer in the form of Cu 101. Simple, one-step heat treatments were used, with temperatures ranging from 700-800C, and times from 10-30 minutes. Transport cri…
Conventional doping methods that directly add C or a C-bearing species to Mg+B powder have the disadvantage of adding C inhomogeneously, yielding either under-reacted regions or blocking phases. Pre-doped B powder provides a more homogeneous distribution of the C dopant in MgB2. Powders containing varying amounts of C were used to produce in-situ MgB2 strands which showed high values of transport Jc (104 A/cm2 at 13.3T). Compared to SiC-added and malic acid-treated strands the pre-doped MgB2 showed both higher values of Birr and transport Jc, indicating that the pre-doping of B leads to more e…
The enhancement of the critical current density (Jc(H)) of carbon and nano-SiC doped MgB2 is presented and compared. The upper critical field (Hc2) being determined from resistivity under magnetic field experiments is though improved for both C substitution and nano-SiC addition the same is more pronounced for the former. In MgB2-xCx carbon is substituted for boron that induces disorder in the boron network and acts as internal pinning centres. The optimal Jc(H) values are obtained for x = 0.1 sample . In case of nano-SiC doped in MgB2, the Jc(H) improves more profoundly and two simultaneous m…
The magnetic and transport properties of magnesium diboride films represent performance goals yet to be attained by powder-processed bulk samples and conductors. Such performance limits are still out of the reach of even the best magnesium diboride magnet wire. In discussing the present status and prospects for improving the performance of powder-based wire we focus attention on (1) the intrinsic (intragrain) superconducting properties of magnesium diboride, Hc2 and flux pinning, (2) factors that control the efficiency with which current is transported from grain-to-grain in the conductor, an …
The influence of SiC-impurity layer and growth temperature on microstructure and superconducting properties were studied for MgB2 superconducting tapes. The pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system was used for the deposition of amorphous SiC-impurity layers on the flexible metallic Cu (001) tapes. The MgB2 superconducting tapes were fabricated by growing MgB2 films on the top of SiC/Cu tapes over a wide temperature range of 460 - 600 °C by using hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) system. Among all tapes, the MgB2/SiC/Cu tape deposited at a temperature of 540 °C has the highest Tc o…
In this work, we present the following important results: 1) We introduce a new Si source, liquid SiCl4, which is free of C, to significantly enhance the irreversibility field (Hirr), the upper critical field (Hc2), and the critical current density (Jc), with little reduction in the critical temperature (Tc). 2) Although Si can not incorporate into the crystal lattice, we found a reduction in the a-axis lattice parameter, to the same extent as for carbon doping. 3) The SiCl4 treated MgB2 shows much higher Jc with superior field dependence above 20 K than undoepd MgB2 and MgB2 doped with variou…
The anisotropy of the critical current density (Jc) and its influence on measurement of irreversibility field (Birr) has been investigated for high quality, in-situ MgB2 strands. Comparison of transport and magnetization measurements has revealed the onset of a regime where large differences exist between transport and magnetically measured values of the critical current density and Birr. These effects, initially unexpected due to the lack of crystalline texture in these in-situ processed strands, appear to be due to a fibrous microstructure, connected with the details of the wire fabrication …
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 …
We study the effect of synthesis temperature on the phase formation in nano(n)-SiC added bulk MgB2 superconductor. In particular we study: lattice parameters, amount of carbon (C) substitution, microstructure, critical temperature (Tc), irreversibility field (Hirr), critical current density (Jc), upper critical field (Hc2) and flux pinning. Samples of MgB2+(n-SiC)x with x=0.0, 0.05 & 0.10 were prepared at four different synthesis temperatures i.e. 850, 800, 750, and 700oC with the same heating rate as 10oC/min. We found 750oC as the optimal synthesis temperature for n-SiC doping in bulk MgB2 i…
The MgB2 coated superconducting tapes have been fabricated on textured Cu (0 0 1) and polycrystalline Hastelloy tapes using coated conductor technique, which has been developed for the second generation high temperature superconducting wires. The MgB2/Cu tapes were fabricated over a wide temperature range of 460-520 °C by using hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) technique. The tapes exhibited the critical temperatures (Tc) ranging between 36 and 38 K with superconducting transition width (\DeltaTc) of about 0.3-0.6 K. The highest critical current density (Jc) of 1.34 \times 105 …
The nano-SiC doped MgB2/Fe wires were fabricated using a powder-in-tube method and an in-situ reaction process. The depression of Tc with increasing SiC doping level remained rather small due to the counterbalanced effect of Si and C co-doping. The high level SiC co-doping allowed creation of the intra-grain defects and nano-inclusions, which act as effective pinning centers, resulting in a substantial enhancement in the Jc(H) performance. The transport Jc for all the wires is comparable to the magnetic Jc at higher fields despite the low density of the samples and percolative nature of curren…
Transport critical current (Ic) was measured for MgB2/Fe round wires, with magnetic field oriented perpendicular to the wire and parallel to it. Measurements were made on a wire with pure MgB2 core and another wire where MgB2 core was doped with nano-size SiC. This doping strongly improved the vortex pinning in MgB2. The field dependence of Ic was strongly improved due to the presence of the iron sheath. At 30K, Ic did not depend on the field for fields between 0.09 and 0.7T. At lower temperatures, Ic increased with the field, after initial decrease, resembling a "peak effect". This effect was…
The influence of the oxygen segregation into Mg-B-O inclusions (which are oxygen enriched as compared to the matrix material) and the formation of boron enriched phases (with near MgB12 composition) in MgB2 structure on pinning in magnesium diboride and the effect of SiC and Ti alloying on the formation of structural inhomogenities in MgB2 are discussed. A nanostructural material of near theoretical density (2.7 g/cm3) based on MgB2-SiC (10 wt. percents of 200-800 nm SiC was added), which is characterized by high jc (1000000 A/cm2 in 1 T - 100000 A/cm2 in 3.5 T at 20 K and 100000 A/cm2 at 35 K…
In powder-in-tube (PIT) Nb3Sn composites, the A15 phase forms between a central tin-rich core and a coaxial Nb tube, thus causing the tin content and superconducting properties to vary with radius across the A15 layer. Since this geometry is also ideal for magnetic characterization of the superconducting properties with the field parallel to the tube axis, a system of concentric shells with varying tin content was used to simulate the superconducting properties, the overall severity of the Sn composition gradient being defined by an index N. Using well-known scaling relationships and property …
A review of current developments in the study of chemical doping effect on the superconducting properties of MgB2 wires and tapes is presented, based on the known literature data and our own results. The critical current density of MgB2 can be improved through various kinds of dopants. Among these dopants, doping with carbon-containing materials seems to be the most effective way to improve the Jc performance. The doping effect of carbon in different forms and carbon-based compounds such as SiC, nano-C, metal carbides, as well as aromatic hydrocarbon and carbohydrate on the Jc-B characteristic…
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…
