Levitation force measurement and characteristics analysis of double sided high temperature superconducting thin film device

Abstract

In this paper, the levitation characteristics of double sided high temperature superconducting (HTS) thin film device is proposed and measured. Based on the unique advantages such as, passive self-stable levitation, higher payload, lower energy consumption, less maintenance cost, etc., HTS-magnetic levitation (maglev) technology has been applied in the traditional fields (rail transit and energy storage fields) and novel fields (astrophysics, space station microgravity, vibration isolation fields). As the key core components, HTS device should meet the requirements of volume, weight and cost, to improve the system operation efficiency. Thus, considering the low profile, miniaturization and lightweight characteristics of the double sided YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) thin film, we measured its levitation and relaxation characteristics. Meanwhile, we also designed the YBCO thin film with meander-lines, to explore the levitation characteristic evolution mechanism. It can be found from the experimental results that, the single piece of YBCO thin film with/without meander-lines can offer the levitation force more than 400 mN and 800 mN, respectively. The signature of this work is that the double sided YBCO thin film has the potential to be employed as the core device in the special application fields (such as astrophysics and space station), to supply the sufficient micro levitation force in limited volume and weight.