Characterization of Commercial YBCO Coated Conductors After Neutron Irradiation

Abstract

In view of the significant progress in coated conductor processing technologies, a wide variety of applications have become feasible. One of them is the design of superconducting magnets for fusion devices operating in the liquid nitrogen temperature range. In this case, the material has to withstand a significant fluence of fast neutrons. Samples of the latest generation of coated conductors provided by commercial suppliers were sequentially irradiated in a fission reactor and characterized by magnetic and direct transport measurements. Angular resolved transport measurements were performed and interesting changes in <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">${\rm J}_{\rm c}(\varphi)$</tex> </formula> were observed. In addition, the effects of thermal neutron irradiation on coated conductors are presented. The most important outcome for applications, the dependence of <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">${\rm J}_{\rm c}$</tex></formula> on the neutron fluence, is discussed in the last part.