Fabrication of multifilamentary Nb-Al by a powder metallurgy process

Fabrication of multifilamentary Nb-Al superconducting wires with high overall critical current densities at high fields is discussed. Powder metallurgy processed materials have been made with low reaction temperatures and with Jc> 10⁴A/cm²at 14 T. The effects of variations of Nb and Al powder size, composition, reduction ratio, reaction temperature, and reaction time on Jcvs appiied field are presented. All the Nb-Al materials show good strain tolerance at high Jcand high field. The results also show that scaleup is promising.