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Significant Influences of Hot-Pressure Sintering on Critical Current Density, Grain Connectivity, and Flux Pinning in Mechanically Alloyed Nb3Al Superconducting Bulk

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Abstract

The route that combines with the mechanically alloying (MA) and powder-in-tube (PIT) method is thought as a potential way to make cost-friendly Nb3Al superconducting wire, since the MA could produce the high-quality Nb(Al)ss supersaturated solid solution and thus obtain high-Jc Nb3Al superconductor. In order to know the effect of hot-pressure (HP) sintering on superconducting properties and flux pinning of Nb3Al, a series of Nb3Al superconducting bulks annealed at 950 °C for 3 h with different sintering pressure and ball milling time have been prepared in this work. The results suggest that for the mechanically alloyed Nb3Al superconductor, its critical current density (Jc) and superconducting transition temperature (Tc) can be significantly improved by HP sintering. Comparing with the atmosphere pressure (AP) sintering, the Tc, onset and Jc (8 K, 7 T) of HP Nb3Al sample with a milling time of 2 h increase from 15.1 K and 0.56 × 104 A/cm2 to 15.7 K and 6.03 × 104 A/cm2, respectively. Improvement of grain connectivity and flux pinning properties are thought to be mainly responsible to the enhancement of current-carrying ability of HP Nb3Al superconductor.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National High-Level Young Talents Project for Dr. X.F. Pan, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51877180 and 51702319), and the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFE0301401).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fujian Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced High-Field Superconducting Materials and Engineering, Fuzhou, 350117, China

    X. F. Pan, H. Lin, T. Xu & Y. Zhao

  2. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Manipulation and New Energy Materials, College of Physics and Energy, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, Fujian, China

    X. F. Pan, H. Lin, T. Xu & Y. Zhao

  3. Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology of Materials (Ministry of Education), Superconductivity and New Energy R&D Center, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Z. Yu, Y. Zhang & Y. Zhao

  4. Western Superconducting Technologies Co. Ltd., Xi’an, 710018, China

    D. Y. Wang & G. Yan

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  1. X. F. Pan
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  2. H. Lin
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  3. T. Xu
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  4. Z. Yu
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  5. Y. Zhang
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  6. D. Y. Wang
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  7. G. Yan
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  8. Y. Zhao
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Correspondence to X. F. Pan or Y. Zhao.

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Pan, X.F., Lin, H., Xu, T. et al. Significant Influences of Hot-Pressure Sintering on Critical Current Density, Grain Connectivity, and Flux Pinning in Mechanically Alloyed Nb3Al Superconducting Bulk. J Supercond Nov Magn 33, 3417–3424 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-020-05633-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-020-05633-9

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