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Man-Made Material Pushes the Bounds of Superconductivity
An anonymous reader writes "A multi-university team of researchers has artificially engineered a unique multilayer material that could lead to breakthroughs in both superconductivity research and in real-world applications. The researchers can tailor the material, which seamlessly alternates between metal and oxide layers, to achieve extraordinary superconducting properties — in particular, the ability to transport much more electrical current than non-engineered materials."
The application I can see is stronger magnets. Right now the superconducting magnets we have are limited by the amount of current they can carry before they start misbehaving. The crappy part is that while we have superconductors which work at liquid nitrogen temperatures, they can't carry a whole lot of current. This leads to MRIs and NMRs using liquid helium cooled magnets which cost a ton of money to maintain. If this material can operate at LN2 temperatures and give the current density of the liquid helium magnets, they will have an amazing product on their hands.
The question -- as it always is -- is: What is the operating temperature range for this material? Because if it's still "refrigerate or die", applications will not expand much beyond where they are today.
I don't have a subscription to Nature Materials, but squinting at the thumbnail graphs available for free, looks like the transition temperature is somewhere around 17-24 Kelvin. As far as I can tell, main advance here is in improving Critical Current Density and Irreversibility Field limits.
Also, tag for story summary: whereisthefuckingpaper
From the Supplementary Materials PDF:
Tc,p = 0 Values
(STO 1.2nm / Co-doped Ba-122 13nm) x24 . . .= 17.0K .= 20.5K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 20nm) x24 . = 22.3K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 20nm) x16 . = 22.9K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 13nm) x24 . = 22.4K
(O-Ba-122 3nm / Co-doped Ba-122 13nm) x16 . = 22.5K
Single layer Co-doped Ba-122 . . . . . . .
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130303154859.htm
Not to mention, the "high temperature" superconductors we have now can't be easily made into wire for winding into magnets.
High temperature is relative here, they mean liquid nitrogen temperatures.
You use vacuum to boil off a large fraction of the energy of the liquid nitrogen, leaving the remainder colder than it would normally be at room pressure.
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