Next-Generation Superconducting Wires

According to a report in the 31 March 2006 issue of Science, researchers have created a next generation of short-length superconducting wires suitable and necessary for high temperature superconductor applications such as levitating trains, super-efficient commercial power for cities and high performance motors.

These applications require wires that can carry a massive current under high applied magnetic fields, a feat which has until now proved elusive. The short new wires developed by Sukill Kang and colleagues consist of flexible metal coated in a superconducting layer mixed with linear arrays of non-superconducting nanodots. The nanodots act as defects within the wire that "pin" down the magnetic flux entering the wire, which can make the superconducting material resistant to high current flow.

The result is a wire that meets or exceeds the high temperature superconductor industry’s performance standards, the researchers say.

Becky Ham

31 March 2006