140 research outputs found
Transport Properties and Exponential n-values of Fe/MgB2 Tapes With Various MgB2 Particle Sizes
Fe/MgB2 tapes have been prepared starting with pre-reacted binary MgB2
powders. As shown by resistive and inductive measurements, the reduction of
particle size to a few microns by ball milling has little influence on Bc2,
while the superconducting properties of the individual MgB2 grains are
essentially unchanged. Reducing the particle size causes an enhancement of Birr
from 14 to 16 T, while Jc has considerably increased at high fields, its slope
Jc(B) being reduced. At 4.2K, values of 5.3*10^4 and 1.2*10^3 A/cm^2 were
measured at 3.5 and 10 T, respectively, suggesting a dominant role of the
conditions at the grain interfaces. A systematic variation of these conditions
at the interfaces is undertaken in order to determine the limit of transport
properties for Fe/MgB2 tapes. The addition of 5% Mg to MgB2 powder was found to
affect neither Jc nor Bc2. For the tapes with the highest Jc values, very high
exponential n factors were measured: n = 148, 89 and 17 at 3.5, 5 and 10T,
respectively and measurements of critical current versus applied strain have
been performed. The mechanism leading to high transport critical current
densities of filamentary Fe/MgB2 tapes based on MgB2 particles is discussed.Comment: Presented at ICMC 2003, 25-28 May 200
A Review of the Properties of Nb3Sn and Their Variation with A15 Composition, Morphology and Strain State
This article gives an overview of the available literature on simplified,
well defined (quasi-)homogeneous laboratory samples. After more than 50 years
of research on superconductivity in Nb3Sn, a significant amount of results are
available, but these are scattered over a multitude of publications. Two
reviews exist on the basic properties of A15 materials in general, but no
specific review for Nb3Sn is available. This article is intended to provide
such an overview. It starts with a basic description of the Niobium-Tin
intermetallic. After this it maps the influence of Sn content on the the
electron-phonon interaction strength and on the field-temperature phase
boundary. The literature on the influence of Cu, Ti and Ta additions will then
be briefly summarized. This is followed by a review on the effects of grain
size and strain. The article is concluded with a summary of the main results.Comment: Invited Topical Review for Superconductor, Science and Technology.
Provisionally scheduled for July 200
The upper critical field of filamentary Nb3Sn conductors
We have examined the upper critical field of a large and representative set
of present multi-filamentary Nb3Sn wires and one bulk sample over a temperature
range from 1.4 K up to the zero field critical temperature. Since all present
wires use a solid-state diffusion reaction to form the A15 layers,
inhomogeneities with respect to Sn content are inevitable, in contrast to some
previously studied homogeneous samples. Our study emphasizes the effects that
these inevitable inhomogeneities have on the field-temperature phase boundary.
The property inhomogeneities are extracted from field-dependent resistive
transitions which we find broaden with increasing inhomogeneity. The upper
90-99 % of the transitions clearly separates alloyed and binary wires but a
pure, Cu-free binary bulk sample also exhibits a zero temperature critical
field that is comparable to the ternary wires. The highest mu0Hc2 detected in
the ternary wires are remarkably constant: The highest zero temperature upper
critical fields and zero field critical temperatures fall within 29.5 +/- 0.3 T
and 17.8 +/- 0.3 K respectively, independent of the wire layout. The complete
field-temperature phase boundary can be described very well with the relatively
simple Maki-DeGennes model using a two parameter fit, independent of
composition, strain state, sample layout or applied critical state criterion.Comment: Accepted Journal of Applied Physics Few changes to shorten document,
replaced eq. 7-
The role of temperature in the magnetic irreversibility of type-I Pb superconductors
Evidence of how temperature takes part in the magnetic irreversibility in the
intermediate state of a cylinder and various disks of pure type-I
superconducting lead is presented. Isothermal measurements of first
magnetization curves and magnetic hysteresis cycles are analyzed in a reduced
representation that defines an equilibrium state for flux penetration in all
the samples and reveals that flux expulsion depends on temperature in the disks
but not in the cylinder. The magnetic field at which irreversibility sets in
along the descending branch of the hysteresis cycle and the remnant
magnetization at zero field are found to decrease with temperature in the
disks. The contributions to irreversibility of the geometrical barrier and the
energy minima associated to stress defects that act as pinning centers on
normal-superconductor interfaces are discussed. The differences observed among
the disks are ascribed to the diverse nature of the stress defects in each
sample. The pinning barriers are suggested to decrease with the magnetic field
to account for these results
Strong enhancement of Jc in binary and alloyed in-situ MgB2 wires by a new approach: Cold high pressure densification
Cold high pressure densification (CHPD) is presented as a new way to
substantially enhance the critical current density of in situ MgB2 wires at 4.2
and 20 K at fields between 5 and 14 T. The results on two binary MgB2 wires and
an alloyed wire with 10 wt.% B4C are presented The strongest enhancement was
measured at 20K, where cold densification at 1.85 GPa on a binary Fe/MgB2 wire
raised both Jcpara and Jcperp by more than 300% at 5T, while Birr was enhanced
by 0.7 T. At 4.2K, the enhancement of Jc was smaller, but still reached 53% at
10 T. After applying pressures up to 6.5 GPa, the mass density dm of the
unreacted (B+Mg) mixture inside the filaments reached 96% of the theoretical
density. After reaction under atmospheric pressure, this corresponds to a
highest mass density df in the MgB2 filaments of 73%. After reaction, the
electrical resistance of wires submitted to cold densification was found to
decrease, reflecting an improved connectivity. A quantitative correlation
between filament mass density and the physical properties was established.
Monofilamentary rectangular wires with aspect ratios a/b < 1.25 based on low
energy ball milled powders exhibited very low anisotropy ratios, Gamma =
Jcpara/Jcperp being < 1.4 at 4.2 K and 10T. The present results can be
generalized to alloyed MgB2 wires, as demonstrated on a wire with B4C
additives. Based on the present data, it follows that cold densification has
the potential of further improving the highest Jcpara and Jcperp values
reported so far for in situ MgB2 tapes and wires with SiC and C additives.
Investigations are under work in our laboratory to determine whether the
densification method CHPD can be applied to longer wire or tape lengths.Comment: Submitted to Superconductors Science and Technolog
Electrons in Dry DNA from Density Functional Calculations
The electronic structure of an infinite poly-guanine - poly-cytosine DNA
molecule in its dry A-helix structure is studied by means of density-functional
calculations. An extensive study of 30 nucleic base pairs is performed to
validate the method. The electronic energy bands of DNA close to the Fermi
level are then analyzed in order to clarify the electron transport properties
in this particularly simple DNA realization, probably the best suited candidate
for conduction. The energy scale found for the relevant band widths, as
compared with the energy fluctuations of vibrational or genetic-sequence
origin, makes highly implausible the coherent transport of electrons in this
system. The possibility of diffusive transport with sub-nanometer mean free
paths is, however, still open. Information for model Hamiltonians for
conduction is provided.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Metal-semiconductor (semimetal) superlattices on a graphite sheet with vacancies
It has been found that periodically closely spaced vacancies on a graphite
sheet cause a significant rearrange-ment of its electronic spectrum: metallic
waveguides with a high density of states near the Fermi level are formed along
the vacancy lines. In the direction perpendicular to these lines, the spectrum
exhibits a semimetal or semiconductor character with a gap where a vacancy
miniband is degenerated into impurity levels.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Proton transfer and tautomerism in 2-aminopurine–thymine and pyrrolocytosine–guanine base pairs
Pyrrolocytosine (PC) and 2-aminopurine (2AP) are fluorescent nucleobase analogues of the DNA nucleobases cytosine and adenine, respectively, and form base pairs with guanine and thymine. Both fluorescent nucleobases are used extensively as probes for local structure in nucleic acids as the fluorescence properties of PC and 2AP are very sensitive to changes such as helix formation, although the reasons for this sensitively are not clear. To address this question ab initio calculations have been used to calculate energies, at the MP2 and CIS level, of three different tautomer pairings of PC-G, and two of 2AP-T, which can potentially be interconverted by double proton transfer between the bases. Potential energy curves linking the different tautomer pairs have been calculated. For both PC-G and 2AP-T the most stable tautomer pair in the electronic ground state is that analogous to the natural C-G and A-T base pair. In the case of 2AP-T an alternative, stable, tautomer base pair was located in the first electronically excited state, however, it lies higher in energy than the tautomer pair analogous to A-T, making conversion to the alternative form unlikely. In contrast, in the case of PC-G, an alternative tautomer base pair is found to be the most stable form in the first electronically excited state and this form is accessible following initial excitation from the ground state tautomer pair, thus suggesting an alternative deactivation route via double proton transfer may be possible when PC is involved in hydrogen bonding, such as occurs in helical conformations
Multifilamentary, in-situ Route, Cu-stabilized MgB2 Strands
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 critical current densities of
1.75 x 105 A/cm2 were seen at 4.2 K and 5 T in 37 stack strands.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figs, 2 table
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