Investigation of the Relaxation of Persistent Current in Superconducting Closed Loops Made Out of YBCO Coated Conductors

Coated conductors allow the fabrication of closed superconducting loops of arbitrary size. Various mechanisms can play a role in the decay of a persistent current in one such loop and in an assembly of multiple loops magnetically coupled with each other. We report recent experimental results on the relaxation rate of the persistent current in an assembly of closed superconducting loops made out of the currently manufactured coated conductors. One of the main goals of this study is to find the effective ways to control the relaxation rate so as to make it small enough to enable such high temperature persistent magnets to be considered as potential alternatives for energy storage, MRI magnets, and magnetic levitation applications. Here we report the effect of appropriately modified current sweep reversal method on the relaxation rate.