Characterization of high critical temperature superconducting wires

Improvements in the current transport properties of high critical temperature superconductors would be facilitated by a quantitative description of the relationship between current capacity and superconductor microstructures. In this study, three types of silver–Bi2212 tapes were characterized in terms of critical current density and various microstructural features. Tapes given melt processing treatments were found to have a higher critical current density, larger apparent Bi2212 grain size, and stronger c-axis texture compared to the results of a lower temperature treatment. A comparison of (001) pole figure data and current transport measurements indicated that a 3-fold increase in the c-axis angular spread corresponded to an order of magnitude drop in critical current density.