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Superconductor technology is a key technology in environment sciences,
energy, transportation, and medical science. For the applications of superconductors
in these disciplines, the development of superconducting tapes and/or wires
is essential. Of these thousands of superconductor, only two of them (Nb-Ti
and Nb3Sn) are currently commercialized. The first high-Tc oxide superconductor
appeared in 1986, and, since then, many high-Tc oxides have been discovered.
Because most of them show Tcfs higher than the boiling point of liquid
nitrogen(77K), they have received considerable attention from the viewpoint
of practical applications. Among high-Tc oxides, bismuth-based oxides of
Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox(Bi-2223) and Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy(Bi-2212), and a yttrium-based
oxide of YBa2Cu3Oy(Y-123) are currently being studied in detail for practical
applications. A metallic superconductor of MgB2 was discovered in 2001,
and attracts attentions of many scientists and engineers because the MgB2
has advantages similar to conventional metallic superconductors in spite
of having a much higher Tc (~40K) than those of other metallic superconductors.
Nb3Al is also an interesting superconductor due to its high upper critical
field and excellent mechanical properties. However, these advanced superconductors
are not commercialized yet due to their insufficient superconducting properties.
In this technical committee we investigated the fabrication process and
superconducting properties of these advanced superconducting tapes and
wires including Nb3Sn wires, and discussed the methods to improve the superconducting
properties. We also investigated other important issues such as AC loss,
mechanical properties, thermal and electromagnetic stability, and possible
applications of these superconducting tapes and wires.
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