High Temp superconductor with high quench limit

[BitBanger]

This EETimes story talks about an iron based superconductor that remains superconducting at 55 deg Kelvin and in the presence of magnetic fields of greater than 45 telsa.

If this turns out to be real, then much smaller Polywells might well be possible.

[MSimon]

This EETimes story talks about an iron based superconductor that remains superconducting at 55 deg Kelvin and in the presence of magnetic fields of greater than 45 telsa.

If this turns out to be real, then much smaller Polywells might well be possible.

I'd like to see the Tc vs B field curves. Also Jc vs T curves.

What is encouraging is that MgB2 went from discovery in 2002 to product in 2006. Hopefully this can go down the learning curve as fast.

MgB2 has the advantage of ductility. These new ones being oxide based may have fabrication problems similar to CuO based materials. That would be a snag.

[TallDave]

Wow, this does sound quite promising:

Now, U.S. researchers have confirmed those results, heralding a new generation of "supermagnets" for magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) machines, superconducting electric motors, power-generators and -transmission lines
...
...which kept superconducting all the way up to 45 tesla. No other superconductors have been able to tolerate magnetic fields that high, making the new iron-based materials candidates for generating magnetic fields even stronger than those possible today.

It says a lot of chemical substitution should be possible. Hopefully some variation has the other properties that would make it suitable.

[JohnP]

So, would you use liquid Neon for this or MgB2? Would that be a compelling reason to use it vs traditional superconductors that need liquid He? LN2 would be higher than Tc for this stuff.

[tombo]

MgB2 has the advantage of ductility. These new ones being oxide based may have fabrication problems similar to CuO based materials. That would be a snag.

I'm not sure how ductile it is in service.
Their process first forms the wire (with the powdered MgB2 inside) into the coil then they sinter it at high temperature.
That implies they can't sinter it before winding into a coil, or they would do it that way.
Fortunately we can live with that.

[MSimon]

I'm not sure how ductile it is in service.

Much more ductile than YBaCuO supers. The wire can be wound on very small forms.