Template for a superconducting coil

A method of making a superconducting coil in situ on a template on a former, the template being made from a sheet of flexible biaxially-textured material having at least two edges, the surface texture of the sheet being defined by a plurality of grains, the former having a substantially curved surface, the method comprising forming the template on the former and then forming the superconducting coil in situ on the template, the method of forming the template comprising:

• shaping the sheet so that:
• a) each edge lies adjacent another of the edges on application of the sheet to the former, each edge and its adjacent edge being a pair of edges;
• and
• b) the sheet is dimensioned to cover a part of the surface of the former and substantially to fit that part of the former;
• and
• positioning the sheet on the former so that regions of the sheet either side of the pair of edges have substantially aligned grains,
• the template thereby having a substantially continuous textured surface between the regions of the sheet either side of the pair of edges;
• and
• the method of forming the superconducting coil on the template comprising forming a series of thin film coils on the template by forming alternate superconducting layers and non-superconducting buffer layer.

A method of making a superconducting coil in situ on a multi-component template on a former, the template being made from at least two sheets of flexible biaxially textured material, each sheet having a plurality of edges, the features of each sheet being defined by a plurality of substantially orientated grains, the former having a substantially curved surface, the method comprising forming the template on the former and then forming the superconducting coil in situ on the template, the method of forming the template comprising:

• shaping each sheet to cover a part of the surface of the former;
• positioning and securing each sheet on the surface of the former at a pre-selected location with respect to the or each other sheet, the grains of each sheet being mutually aligned and having a predetermined orientation with respect to the alignment of the grains of the/each other sheets;
• and
• the method of forming the superconducting coil on the template comprising forming a series of thin film coils on the template by forming alternate superconducting layers and non-superconducting buffer layer.