Contact resistivity due to oxide layers between two REBCO tapes

TL;DR

This study investigates how oxide layers on REBCO tapes influence contact resistivity, demonstrating that controlled oxidation and pressure cycling can significantly modify Rc, which is crucial for the performance of no-insulation superconducting magnets.

Contribution

It provides detailed characterization of oxide layers formed by Ebonol C treatment and their impact on contact resistivity, offering insights for optimizing NI magnet performance.

Findings

Oxide layer thickness correlates with Rc values.

Pressure cycling reduces Rc significantly for stainless steel tapes.

Oxide thickness influences stability of Rc over cycles.

Abstract

In a no-insulation (NI) REBCO magnet, the turn-to-turn contact resistivity (Rc) determines its quench self-protection capability, charging delay time and the energy loss during field ramps. Therefore it is critically important to be able to control a range of Rc values suitable for various NI magnet coils. We used a commercial oxidizing agent Ebonol C to treat the copper surface of REBCO tapes. The copper oxide layer was characterized by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The oxide layer formed in Ebonol C at 98 {\deg}C for 1 min is Cu2O of about 0.5 um. The Rc between two oxidized REBCO is in the order of 35 mOhm-cm2 at 4.2 K which decreases slowly with contact pressure cycles. The Rc increases but only slightly at 77 K. We also investigated the effect of oxidation of stainless steel co-wind tape on Rc. The native oxides on 316 stainless steel tape as well as those heated in air at 200 - 600 {\deg}C were examined by TEM and XPS. The native oxides layer is about 3 nm thick. After heating at 300 {\deg}C for 8 min and 600 {\deg}C for 1 min, its thickness increases to about 10 and 30 nm respectively. For the stainless steel tapes with about 10 nm surface oxides, pressure cycling for 30,000 cycles decreases Rc by almost 4 orders of magnitude. Whereas at 77 K, it only changes slightly. For a surface with 30 nm oxide, the Rc decreases moderately with load cycles. The results suggest that for an oxidized stainless steel to achieve stable Rc over large number of load cycles a relatively thick oxide film is needed.