Developmental Studies on Powder-Processed Nb₃A1 Superconducting Wire

Abstract

The superconducting compounds that show greatest promise for the windings of high-field superconducting magnets are intermetallic compounds of stoichiometric composition A₃B in the A15 crystal structure. This class of compounds includes the superconducting phases Nb₃Sn, V₃Ga, Nb₃A1, Nb₃Ge, and others. They combine high critical temperature (T_c) with high upper critical field (H_c2) and high critical current density (J_c). These compounds are, however, brittle intermetallic phases. They are therefore difficult to form into long lengths of superconducting wires for use in high-field magnet windings.