Flexible high-temperature superconductor and method for its production

Abstract

The invention relates to electrical engineering, in particular, to the manufacturing technology of flexible high-temperature superconductors (HTS) with high critical current density in external magnetic field and to the method of manufacturing of said superconductors (tapes). The invention is applicable to industrial manufacturing of HTS wires with very high values of critical current density in magnetic fields over 1 Tesla at temperatures below 50 Kelvin, in particular, to industrial manufacturing of HTS wires intended for application in compact fusion reactors. Flexible high temperature superconductor is comprised of a substrate and a superconductor layer with RE1+2xBa2Cu3O7+3x overall composition comprised of a superconductor matrix of REBa2Cu3O7 composition and non-superconducting nanoparticles of RE2O3 composition, where x=0.05-0.15, RE is a rare earth element from the Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu group, whereas the concentration density of the said nanoparticles is at least 1016 nanoparticles/cm3. Method of manufacturing of the superconductor is comprised of pulsed laser deposition of superconductor material with RE1+2xBa2Cu3O7+3x overall composition, where x=0.05-0.15, RE is rare earth element from the Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu group, onto a substrate moving through the deposition zone and heated to a temperature of at least 800° C., whereas the deposition is performed using an ablated target made from multiphase sintered ceramics comprised of chemical elements that compose the superconductor material, at a deposition rate greater than 100 nm/s and at a temperature gradient in the deposition zone that ensures the deposition of the superconductor material without the formation of liquid phase. The invention allows for improvement of the properties of flexible high temperature superconductor by increasing its critical current in high magnetic fields and ensures simple and economic large scale production of said HTS conductor with improved properties.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.