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The European DEMO, i.e. the demonstration fusion power plant designed in the framework of the Roadmap to Fusion Electricity by the EUROfusion Consortium, is approaching the end of the pre-conceptual design phase, to be accomplished with a Gate Review in 2020, in which all DEMO subsystems will be reviewed by panels of independent experts. The latest 2018 DEMO baseline has major and minor radius of 9.1 m and 2.9 m, plasma current 17.9 MA, toroidal field on the plasma axis 5.2 T, and the peak field in the toroidal-field (TF) conductor 12.0 T. The 900 ton heavy TF coil is prepared in four low-temperature-superconductor (LTS) variants, some of them differing slightly, other significantly, from the ITER TF coil design. Two variants of the CS coils are investigated—a purely LTS one resembling the ITER CS, and a hybrid coil, in which the innermost layers made of HTS allow the designers either to increase the magnetic flux, and thus the duration of the fusion pulse, or to reduce the outer radius of the CS coil. An issue presently investigated by mechanical analyzes is the fatigue load. Two variants of the poloidal field coils are being investigated. The magnet and conductor design studies are accompanied by the experimental tests on both LTS and HTS prototype samples, covering a broad range of DC and AC tests. Testing of quench behavior of the 15 kA HTS cables, with size and layout relevant for the fusion magnets and cooled by forced flow helium, is in preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural and transport properties of YBa2Cu3O7−x films grown by pulsed laser deposition with mixed 2.5 mol% Ba2YTaO6 (BYTO) and 2.5 mol% Ba2YNbO6 (BYNO) double-perovskite secondary phases are investigated in an extended film growth rate, R = 0.02–1.8 nm s−1. The effect of R on the film microstructure analyzed by TEM techniques shows an evolution from sparse and straight to denser, thinner and splayed continuous columns, with mixed BYNO + BYTO (BYNTO) composition, as R increases from 0.02 nm s−1 to 1.2 nm s−1. This microstructure results in very efficient flux pinning at 77 K, leading to a remarkable improvement in the critical current density (Jc) behaviour, with the maximum pinning force density Fp(Max) = 13.5 GN m−3 and the irreversibility field in excess of 11 T. In this range, the magnetic field values at which the Fp is maximized varies from 1 T to 5 T, being related to the BYNTO columnar density. The film deposited when R = 0.3 nm s−1 exhibits the best performances over the whole temperature and magnetic field ranges, achieving Fp(Max) = 900 GN m−3 at 10 K and 12 T. At higher rates, R > 1.2 nm s−1, BYNTO columns show a meandering nature and are prone to form short nanorods. In addition, in the YBCO film matrix a more disordered structure with a high density of short stacking faults is observed. From the analysis of the Fp(H, T) curves it emerges that in films deposited at the high R limit, the vortex pinning is no longer dominated by BYNTO columnar defects, but by a new mechanism showing the typical temperature scaling law. Even though this microstructure produces a limited improvement at 77 K, it exhibits a strong Jc improvement at lower temperature with Fp = 700 GN m−3 at 10 K, 12 T and 900 GN m−3 at 4.2 K, 18 T. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anisotropy is an intrinsic factor that dictates the magnetic properties of YBa2Cu3O7−δ and therefore has a great impact on many applications. Artificial pinning centres are often introduced in an attempt to mitigate its effect, resulting in less anisotropic electrical and magnetic properties. However, the nanoengineering of superconductors makes the quantification of the anisotropy itself uncertain: the intrinsic anisotropy due to the layered structure, quantified by the anisotropy factor γ, mixes with the additional anisotropy due to pinning. As a consequence, there is no consensus on the experimental anisotropy factor γ that can result in YBa2Cu3O7−δ when directional (twin planes, nanorods) or isotropic defects are present. We present measurements of the magnetic field and angular dependent surface impedance in very different nanostructured YBa2Cu3O7−δ films, grown by a chemical route and by pulsed laser deposition with different kind of defects (nanorods, twin planes, nanoparticles). We show that the surface impedance measurements are able to disentangle the intrinsic anisotropy from the directional pinning anisotropy, thanks to the possibility of extracting the true anisotropic flux–flow resistivity and by correctly exploiting the angular scaling. We find in all films that the intrinsic anisotropy γ = 5.3 ± 0.7. By contrast, the pinning anisotropy determines a much more complex, feature–rich and nonuniversal, sample–dependent angular landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the feasibility of Fe(Se, Te) coated conductors on a simple rolling-assisted biaxially textured substrate (RABiTS) template. Starting from commercially available Ni–5 at% W tapes which show an out-of-plane orientation of about 7° and an in-plane orientation around 5°, we realized a RABiTS template for Fe(Se, Te) coated conductor fabrication by depositing CeO2 thin films on the metallic tape. The oxide buffer layers, deposited via pulsed laser ablation, exhibit an out-of-plane and an in-plane orientation suitable for Fe(Se, Te) deposition and act as a chemical barrier against Ni diffusion. Fe(Se, Te) thin films deposited on such a simple template show a superconducting transition at 16 K and very high upper critical field values with a ΔTc,0 of only 3 K in 18 T. The transport critical current reaches values of 1.7 × 105 A cm−2 at 4.2 K in self-field and is reduced by less than one order of magnitude up to 18 T, remaining isotropic with respect to the magnetic field direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superconducting strips coated with boron were engineered with a view to subnuclear particle detection. Combining the characteristics of boron as a generator of α-particles (as a consequence of neutron absorption) and the ability of superconducting strips to act as resistive switches, it is shown that fabricated Nb–boron and NbN–boron strips represent a promising basis for implementing neutron detection devices. In particular, the superconducting transition of boron-coated NbN strips generates voltage outputs of the order of a few volts thanks to the relatively higher normal state resitivity of NbN with respect to Nb. This result, combined with the relatively high transition temperature of NbN (of the order of 16 K for the bulk material), is an appealing prospect for future developments. The coated strips are meta-devices since their constituting material does not exist in nature and it is engineered to accomplish a specific task, i.e. generate an output voltage signal upon α-particle irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pd films were deposited on rolling assisted biaxially textured substrate (RABiTS) Ni-5 at.% W in order to exploit the Pd effect of the texture sharpening with respect to that of the substrate, for the development of YBa2Cu3O7[?]x (YBCO) coated conductors. The Pd sharpening effect was relevant in the out-of-plane direction where the reduction for the o-scans' full width at half maximum (FWHM) ranged from 55 to 65%, depending on the substrate roughness. The obtained minimum values of the FWHM in the transverse rolling direction of the (002) Pd o-scan and in the (111) Pd ph-scan were of about 2.5° and 5°, respectively. The CeO2/YSZ/CeO2 (YSZ is Y2O3-stabilised ZrO2) heterostructure of the buffer layer was developed by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). In order to transfer the sharp orientation of the Pd film, both the seed CeO2 layer and the YSZ layer were deposited at low temperatures (450 °C), low enough to avoid Pd/Ni-W interdiffusion. The YBCO, films deposited by both PLD and metal-organic deposition (MOD) using metal trifluoroacetate acid (TFA), exhibited rolling direction (005) o-scan and the (113) ph-scan FWHM values of about 2° and 5°, respectively. In spite of the complete interdiffusion between Ni and Pd during the YBCO film deposition, the coated conductors exhibit good adherence, as well as a smooth and crack-free surface. A zero-resistance critical temperature (TC0) of 90.8 K for the MOD-TFA YBCO films and critical current-density (JC) up to 2.2 MA cm[?]2 at 77 K and self-field for PLD YBCO films have been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]