Florida State University researchers have discovered a novel way to improve the performance of electrical wires used as high-temperature superconductors (HTS), findings that have the potential to power a new generation of particle accelerators.
An image of Bi-2212, bismuth-based superconducting wires. (Mark Wallheiser/FAMU-FSU College of Engineering)Researchers used high-resolution scanning electron microscopy to understand how processing methods influence grains in bismuth-based superconducting wires (known as Bi-2212). Those grains form the underlying structures of high-temperature superconductors, and scientists viewing the Bi-2212 grains at the atomic scale successfully optimized their alignment in a process that makes the material more efficient in carrying a superconducting current, or supercurrent. Their work was published in the journal Superconductor Science and Technology.
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