Speaker
Description
Nb3Sn superconducting wires have been developed for nearly half a century and their record Jcs have plateaued since the early 2000s. The only opportunity for further significantly improving Jc of Nb3Sn conductors relative to the present state of the art lies in improving flux pinning capacity. In this talk efforts to improve pinning of Nb3Sn conductors by introducing additional pinning centers (APC) are reviewed, and it is seen that due to the critical processing requirements of Nb3Sn wires, the most promising approach is an internal oxidation technique that forms inter-granular and intra-granular ZrO2 nano particles in Nb3Sn wires, which can significantly refine Nb3Sn grain size. This not only causes enhancement of maximum pinning force Fp,max, but also causes the peak of Fp-B curves to shift to higher fields as grain size is refined to a certain level. Methods to implement this technique in practical Nb3Sn wires are introduced, and its significant benefit on Jc of Nb3Sn conductors is shown.
