Enhancing the magnetic field gradient between two superconductors with rotational motion under a background DC field

Abstract

The ability of bulk high-temperature superconductors to trap magnetic flux densities up to one order of magnitude larger than the saturation magnetization of conventional ferromagnetic materials offers the prospect of generating large magnetic flux density gradients. Combining multiple superconductors, akin to assembling a Halbach array of permanent magnets, may increase the generated gradient even further. The associated challenge is that superconductors are prone to demagnetization when exposed to field components perpendicular to their main magnetization direction. In the present work, we investigate the magnetic flux density gradient achieved with a pair of cubic, bulk, large-grain melt-textured superconductors in the presence of a background DC magnetic field at 77 K. We investigate the increase of the performance when decreasing the temperature down to 59 K. 

The studied configuration consists in two facing cubic YBa2Cu3O7-x superconductors of 6 mm side with anti-parallel magnetization directions. It is obtained after the simultaneous magnetization of the samples followed by a rotation of 180° of the top superconductor. Although the background field reduces the trapped field ability of individual samples, it is shown that this phenomenon is significantly mitigated at 65 K and at 59 K compared to 77 K. The results reveal that a sample-to-sample distance (∼ 16 mm) of the order of their size is sufficient to avoid any mutual demagnetization effect during the rotational motion. Furthermore, it is shown that decreasing the temperature is not only beneficial in increasing the field and field gradient achieved but also in extending the range of background fields in which the superconductor can be rotated without demagnetization. This superconducting assembly yields a magnetic flux density gradient exceeding that of an isolated superconductor and has the potential to surpass the capabilities of permanent magnets.