LASL Nb/sub 3/Ge conductor development. Fifteenth quarterly progress report, January 1-March 31, 1980

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5217183· OSTI ID:5217183

Maley, M P ^[1]

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1. comp.

The fifteenth quarterly progress report of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory program to develop Nb/sub 3/Ge as a superconductor with potential applications to power transmission lines covers the period January 1-March 31, 1980. During this quarter, additional instrumentation was installed on the first 1-m Nb/sub 3/Ge cable in preparation for tests, which are now scheduled for May 1980. Three Nb/sub 3/(Ge/sub 1-x/Ga/sub x/)pseudobinary compounds were prepared with compositions approaching the proper stoichiometry and with x = 0.08, 0.12, and 0.15, respectively. The replacement of germanium by gallium causes a slight depression (approx. 1.0 K) of T/sub c/ and does not appear to influence H/sub c/sub 2// significantly. A microscopic examination of the edge material on sections of our Nb/sub 3/Ge-clad tape revealed longitudinal cracks extending along the edges of tapes with Nb/sub 3/Ge thickness t greater than or equal to 4.0 ..mu..m. Tapes with t = 3.0 ..mu..m show no evidence of such cracks, corroborating conclusions reached by ac loss measurements. The two layers of the inner conductor of the first 1-m test cable were wound with tapes coated with 4 to 6 ..mu..m of Nb/sub 3/Ge and are expected to contain longitudinal cracks. The two layers of the outer conductor of this coaxial cable were fabricated from tapes coated with approx. 3.0 ..mu..m of Nb/sub 3/Ge and should exhibit lower ac losses.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos Scientific Lab., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5217183
• Report Number(s): LA-8446-PR
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

200303 -- Power Transmission & Distribution-- Superconducting & Cryogenic Systems-- (-1989)
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
656102* -- Solid State Physics-- Superconductivity-- Acoustic
Electronic
Magnetic
Optical
& Thermal Phenomena-- (-1987)
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ALLOYS
CABLES
COAXIAL CABLES
CONDUCTOR DEVICES
ELECTRIC CABLES
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION
GERMANIUM ALLOYS
INTERMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
NIOBIUM ALLOYS
NIOBIUM BASE ALLOYS
PERFORMANCE
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SUPERCONDUCTING CABLES
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY