1 research outputs found
Properties of recent IBAD-MOCVD Coated Conductors relevant to their high field, low temperature magnet use
BaZrO3 (BZO) nanorods are now incorporated into production IBAD-MOCVD coated
conductors. Here we compare several examples of both BZO-free and
BZO-containing coated conductors using critical current (Ic) characterizations
at 4.2 K over their full angular range up to fields of 31 T. We find that BZO
nanorods do not produce any c-axis distortion of the critical current density
Jc(theta) curve at 4.2 K at any field, but also that pinning is nevertheless
strongly enhanced compared to the non-BZO conductors. We also find that the
tendency of the ab-plane Jc(theta) peak to become cusp-like is moderated by BZO
and we define a new figure of merit that may be helpful for magnet design - the
OADI (Off-Axis Double Ic), which clearly shows that BZO broadens the ab-plane
peak and thus raises Jc 5-30{\deg} away from the tape plane, where the most
critical approach to Ic occurs in many coil designs. We describe some
experimental procedures that may make critical current Ic tests of these very
high current tapes more tractable at 4.2 K, where Ic exceeds 1000 A even for 4
mm wide tape with only 1 micron thickness of superconductor. A positive
conclusion is that BZO is very beneficial for the Jc characteristics at 4.2 K,
just as it is at higher temperatures, where the correlated c-axis pinning
effects of the nanorods are much more obvious