Transport current and magnetization of Bi-2212 wires above liquid Helium temperature for cryogen-free applications

Abstract Since the discovery of high temperature superconductors, a possible cryogen-free scenario has always been wished. Nowadays, liquid Helium is running out, and it is likely that the cooling by will be a large part of the costs of any superconducting system. Bi-2212 wires at temperature higher than 4.2 K still show a very high irreversibility field and thus a deep investigation of their properties in such a range of temperature is very useful in order to assess the applicability in high field cryogen-free magnets. Here electrical transport and magnetic properties characterization at variable temperature and magnetic field on our “GDG—processed” wires are reported together with a well-described original approach to calculate the irreversibility field H irr. This study is devoted to provide reference data on the behaviour of the only isotropic wire for high field application with an eye to the performances at temperatures above 4.2 K.