Stress effects in superconducting Cu-V3Ga <i>i</i> <i>n</i> <i>s</i> <i>i</i> <i>t</i> <i>u</i> composites

Abstract

The effect of the uniaxial tensile stress on the critical-current density Jc, and upper critical field Hc2, of in situ formed Cu-V3Ga composites has been investigated. Jc was found to gradually decrease at stresses greater than ∼200 MPa. The effect is small, amounting to a decrease of only 20% at 16 T and 1 GPa. However, no permanent degradation was observed even at stress levels in excess of 1 GPa. Similarly, Hc2 was found to be rather insensitive to applied stress. The observed decrease of about 0.5 T at 1 GPa was fully recovered after releasing the stress.