A liquid phase processing method for the fabrication of bulk YBa2Cu3Ox superconductors with large current carrying capacity has been developed. Slow cooling through the peritectic transformation (1030–980 °C) has been shown to control the microstructure of these superconductors. A cooling rate of 1 °C/h in this temperature range has yielded a microstructure with long plate type, thick grains oriented over a wide area. Current density up to 18 500 A/cm2 has been obtained by continuous direct current measurements and in excess of 62 000 A/cm2 with pulse current of 10 ms duration and 75 000 A/cm2 using 1 ms pulse. The strong magnetic field dependence observed in sintered bulk 1-2-3 superconductors is also minimized to a large extent where a current density in excess of 37 000 A/cm2 is obtained in a field of 6000 G.

Applications of REBCO coated conductors are now being developed for a very wide range of temperatures and magnetic fields and it is not yet clear whether vortex pinning strategies aimed for high temperature, low field operation are equally valid at lower temperatures and higher fields. A detailed characterization of the superconducting properties of a 15 mol. % Zr-added REBCO thin film made by metal organic chemical vapor deposition, from 4.2 to 77 K under magnetic fields up to 31 T is presented in this article. Even at a such high level of Zr addition, Tc depression has been avoided (Tc = 91 K), while at the same time an exceptionally high irreversibility field Hirr ≈ 14.8 T at 77 K and a remarkably high vortex pinning force density Fp ≈ 1.7 TN/m3 at 4.2 K have been achieved. We ascribe the excellent pinning performance at high temperatures to the high density (equivalent vortex matching field ∼7 T) of self-assembled BZO nanorods, while the low temperature pinning force is enhanced by large additional pinning which we ascribe to strain-induced point defects induced in the REBCO matrix by the BZO nanorods. Our results suggest even more room for further performance enhancement of commercial REBCO coated conductors and point the way to REBCO coil applications at liquid nitrogen temperatures since the critical current density Jc(H//c) characteristic at 77 K are now almost identical to those of fully optimized Nb-Ti at 4 K.

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REBa2Cu3Ox ((REBCO), RE = rare earth) superconductor tapes with moderate levels of dopants have been optimized for high critical current density in low magnetic fields at 77 K, but they do not exhibit exemplary performance in conditions of interest for practical applications, i.e., temperatures less than 50 K and fields of 2–30 T. Heavy doping of REBCO tapes has been avoided by researchers thus far due to deterioration in properties. Here, we report achievement of critical current densities (Jc) above 20 MA/cm2 at 30 K, 3 T in heavily doped (25 mol. % Zr-added) (Gd,Y)Ba2Cu3Ox superconductor tapes, which is more than three times higher than the Jc typically obtained in moderately doped tapes. Pinning force levels above 1000 GN/m3 have also been attained at 20 K. A composition map of lift factor in Jc (ratio of Jc at 30 K, 3 T to the Jc at 77 K, 0 T) has been developed which reveals the optimum film composition to obtain lift factors above six, which is thrice the typical value. A highly c-axis aligned BaZrO3 (BZO) nanocolumn defect density of nearly 7 × 1011 cm−2 as well as 2–3 nm sized particles rich in Cu and Zr have been found in the high Jc films.

BaZrO 3 (BZO) nanorods are now incorporated into production IBAD-MOCVD coated conductors. Here we compare several examples of both BZO-free and BZO-containing coated conductors using critical current (I c ) characterizations at 4.2 K over their full angular range up to fields of 31 T. We find that BZO nanorods do not produce any c-axis distortion of the critical current density J c () curve at 4.2 K at any field, but also that pinning is nevertheless strongly enhanced compared to the non-BZO conductors. We also find that the tendency of the ab-plane J c () peak to become cusp-like is moderated by BZO and we define a new figure of merit that may be helpful for magnet design -the OADI (Off-Axis Double I c ), which clearly shows that BZO broadens the abplane peak and thus raises J c 5-30° away from the tape plane, where the most critical approach to I c occurs in many coil designs. We describe some experimental procedures that may make critical current I c tests of these very high current tapes more tractable at 4.2 K, where I c exceeds 1000 A even for 4 mm wide tape with only 1 m thickness of superconductor. A positive conclusion is that BZO is very beneficial for the J c characteristics at 4.2 K, just as it is at higher temperatures, where the correlated c-axis pinning effects of the nanorods are much more obvious.