High-performance Fe-based superconducting materials for high magnetic field applications
Synthesis and Properties of Functional Materials
Final Report Abstract
High-field magnets are important tools for medical diagnostics as well as the characterization of material properties and are indispensable for many research areas. Providing highest magnetic fields up to technical feasibility limits is a crucial prerequisite for outstanding basic and applied research. Superconducting materials are the key ingredient for generating strong magnetic fields, and so far the classic superconductors Nb-Ti and NbSn3 limit the available magnetic field strength to about 21 T. Besides the cuprate-based high-temperature superconductors, the recently discovered Fe-based superconductors might open the possibility to shift the accessible upper field limit to much higher values. This project planned to address this target to develop and test the worldwide first Fe-based superconducting high magnetic field insert coil by combining the expertise of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in the fields of physics, materials sciences, and engineering. The research group at the Institute for Technical Physics (ITEP) at KIT contributed to this goal with its material expertise and studied and improved the superconducting critical current properties in high magnetic fields. The research group at the Institute for Electrical Engineering (IEE-CAS) planned to develop and synthesize high-Jc wires, which can be used to realize a superconducting high-field insert coil.
