More superconductor news

Skipjack · Post by **Skipjack** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:47 pm

They are coming in fast lately... on nextbigfuture anyway...

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/high-f ... s-and.html

http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/bismut ... place.html

chrismb · Post by **chrismb** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:50 pm

At least it means someone has found a use for bismuth! I always thought it was a bit of a waste of space on the periodic table...

Professor Science · Post by **Professor Science** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:01 am

You best not be disrespecting the immortal element, Chris, it'll last longer than all but 3 elements.

chrismb · Post by **chrismb** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:02 am

Professor Science wrote:You best not be disrespecting the immortal element, Chris, it'll last longer than all but 3 elements.

Bismuth and I go back a long way, I'm sure it'll take my jokes with humour. We're like old friends, as it helped me through those mornings-after-the-night-befores of my youth! [Pepto-bismol]

cybrbeast · Post by **cybrbeast** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:26 pm

I have a bismuth crystal. It's beautiful.
long url

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:51 am

BSCCO-2212 is not by any stretch a new material.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/f4287742558576u4/

1995

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 11:03 am

And MgB has a reported Critical field of 100 T @ 0K

It has some nice properties re: fusion. if it is made of MgB11 it has fairly good resistance (re: superconducting properties) to neutron flux.

What do I make of these recent announcements? Trolling for funds.

BTW high fields are not too tough in small bores. A 20T or 30T field in a 1 m bore would be nice. The limit of course is the critical field near the wires. It will be rather higher than the field in the bore. Hence the need for high field wires.

So far the limit for MgB experimentally is 9T or 10T in a 1 m bore. Doubling that gives a 16X increase in power density. The question as always: how do the losses scale?