2010 R&D 100 Winner
Scientists have known for some time that defects within superconducting materials can pin magnetic flux lines so that large currents can flow through the materials in the presence of high applied magnetic fields. Engineers have tried to apply this principle to high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wire technology now in use, but haven’t found a way without using expensive, laborious ionizing radiation.
The introduction of High-Performance, High-Tc Superconducting Wires enabled via Self-assembly of Nonsuperconducting Columnar Defects by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn.; SuperPower Inc., Schenectady, N.Y.; the Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.; and the Univ. of Houston, Texas, represents the first successful alternative for introducing these nanoscale defects. Second-generation HTS conductors are comprised of a flexible metallic substrate with several buffer layers and a superconducting layer.
The key goal is to have a bi-axially textured superconducting layer so that few, if any, high-angle, weakly conducting grain boundaries are present. This is accomplished by epitaxial formation or deposition of the superconducting layer on bi-axially textured oxide surfaces deposited upon the flexible metallic substrate.
The 3D self-assembly process uses a combination of both epitaxial formation and deposition technologies that form nanoscale defects, that propagate through the entire thickness of thick superconducting wires up to a thickness of 4 um. These wires have the highest superconducting performance to date world-wide, especially in high applied magnetic fields, and lengths over 100-m have been demonstrated.
Technology
Epitaxial defect-introduction process for superconducting wires
Developers
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
SuperPower Inc.
University of Tennessee, Department of Material Science and Engineering
University of Houston, Texas
Development Team
The High-Performance, High-Tc Superconducting Wires enabled via Self-assembly of Non-super conducting Columnar Defects Development Team:
Tolga Aytug, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Claudia Cantoni, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Yimin Chen, SuperPower Inc.
David Christen, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Yanfei Gao, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Amit Goyal, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Sukill Kang, Chonbuk National University
Dominic Lee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Kieth Leonard, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Karren More, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
M. Paranthaman, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Venkat Selvamanickam, University of Houston
Eliot Specht, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Malcolm Stocks, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Jim Thompson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Sung-hun Wee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Yuri Zuev, University of Tennessee
