Analysis of the Variations in the Critical Current of Commercial Coated Conductors Subjected to Different Temperature and Pressure Conditions

by Dr Pablo Cayado Llosa (University of Geneva)

Wednesday 1 Nov 2023, 14:00 → 15:00 US/Pacific

Speaker: Dr. Pablo Cayado Llosa

Host: Ian Pong

Zoom: https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/5104867866

Title: Analysis of the Variations in the Critical Current of Commercial Coated Conductors Subjected to Different Temperature and Pressure Conditions

Abstract: 

In recent years, good-quality REBCO Coated Conductors (CCs) have been more and more widespread on the market, opening the possibilities to employ them routinely in multiple applications, e.g., high-field magnets or current cables. However, the development of reliable methods for creating superconducting joints is necessary to overcome the constraints imposed by the limited length of individual conductor pieces in certain applications that require the use of closed-loop coils in persistent current mode. Joining two exposed surfaces of REBCO typically requires a combination of pressure and temperature. Therefore, it is essential to study the behaviour of the tapes under transverse compressive forces, the impact of temperature and the combination of both applied simultaneously. By analyzing the magnetic, structural and transport properties, the origin of the Ic variations of the coated conductors subjected to different conditions of temperature and pressure can be understood. The results shade light on the basic mechanisms that are behind the degradation/improvement of Ic that happens at certain combinations of pressure and temperature and provides valuable information for many practical applications.

Biography: 

Pablo Cayado is a postdoctoral researcher in the Applied Superconductivity group at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He studied physics at the University of Oviedo, Spain, and graduated in 2011. Afterwards, he moved to the Material Science Institute of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) where he completed his Master degree (2012) and PhD (2016) working on the preparation of REBCO nanocomposite films by chemical solution deposition and the study of the oxygen diffusion in these films. In July 2016, he began his first postdoctoral stay at the Institute for Technical Physics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany working on the use of the chemical solution deposition process to prepare REBCO films with new pinning scenarios (mixing of different REBCO compounds and new nanoparticles) for improving the critical currents at various fields and temperatures and on the optimization of the oxygenation process in such films. Since September 2020 he continued his career at the University of Geneva and his current research activities focus on studying the fundamental properties of commercial coated conductors to achieve robust and reproducible superconducting joints between them.