High current variable temperature electrical characterization system for superconducting wires and tapes with...

A new state-of-the-art electrical transport measurement system was developed for the characterization of industrially produced coated conductors (CCs). The current leads are rated to a conduct current of up to 1000 A, which opens up the possibility of measuring the critical current I_c of tapes at a wide range of temperatures. The setup operates in a He-gas flow cryostat that provides stable temperatures between 1.8 and 200 K. The setup is equipped with a split-coil magnet that can apply fields of up to 6 T. A continuous rotation of the sample with respect to the magnetic field with an angular resolution of 0.5° enables characterization of anisotropic I_c of different tapes. In the measured voltage-current curves, weak sample heating mostly occurs from the dissipation in the tape during the I_c transition. It is demonstrated that the system can provide reliable data on the properties of CCs at temperatures lower than 77 K for a magnet design and other applications. The results allow the study of vortex pinning for further prospects of engineering the microstructure of the superconducting layer as well as to assess the performance of various tapes with different architectures to achieve optimum performance at different operating temperatures and magnetic fields.