Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Powder-metallurgy-processed A15 Nb/sub 3/Al superconducting wires

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7093460

The possibility of the manufacture of superconducting A15 Nb/sub 3/Al wires by a powder metallurgy process was explored. A T/sub c/ value of 17 K and overall J/sub c/ value of > 10/sup 4/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 15 teslas and 4.2 K were obtained. The variations of both T/sub c/ and overall J/sub c/ with the temperature and time of the heat treatment employed were investigated. Based on those, a multiple-step heat treatment was proposed and found to be beneficial to both T/sub c/ and overall J/sub c/. It is believed that this resulted from the improvement of the superconducting characteristics within the wire. The variations of the overall J/sub c/ with other processing parameters were also investigated. Based on the results obtained, the importance of the filament thickness of Nb and Al and the Nb-Al interfacial area in determining the critical current density was discussed. Preliminary characterization of the microstructure of the reacted layer within the powder wire was performed using a transmission electron microscope and the result was presented.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098
OSTI ID:
7093460
Report Number(s):
LBL-14749; ON: DE82022057
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English