Titanium additions to MgB2 conductors

TL;DR

This study explores how titanium doping affects MgB2 superconducting conductors, showing that controlled Ti addition can maintain high critical current densities at elevated temperatures and magnetic fields.

Contribution

It demonstrates that specific Ti doping methods can enhance MgB2's superconducting performance without significant Tc suppression.

Findings

Undoped MgB2 has Jc of 500,000 A/cm^2 at 5K in low fields.

Heavy Ti doping suppresses Tc and Jc significantly.

Optimized Ti doping yields Jc of 2-5 million A/cm^2 at 25K and 1.3 T.

Abstract

A series of doping experiments are reported for MgB2 conductors that have been synthesized using doped boron fibers prepared by chemical vapor deposition(CVD) methods. Undoped MgB2 samples prepared from CVD prepared fibers consistently give critical current densities, Jc, in the range of 500,000 A/cm^2 in low field at 5K. These values fall by a factor of about 100 as the magnetic field increases to 3T. For heavily Ti-doped boron fibers where the B/Ti ratio is comparable to 1, there is a substantial suppression of both Tc, superconducting volume fraction, and Jc values. If, however, a sample with a few percent Ti in B is deposited on a carbon coated SiC substrate and reacted at 1100 degrees C for 15 min, then Tc is suppressed only a couple of degrees Kelvin and critical current densities are found to be approximately 2-5 x 10^6 A/cm^2 for superconducting layers ranging from 4-10 micrometers thick. These materials show Jc values over 10,000 A/cm^2 at 25K and 1.3 T.