Temperature-dependent critical current density of Bi(Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O tapes in fields up to 20 tesla

Abstract

The transport critical current density (Jc) of silver-sheathed polycrystalline Bi(Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O (BPSCCO) tapes has been measured at approximately 10 K intervals from 4.2 K up to 77 K in fields of 1-20 T. The tapes were produced by swaging, drawing and multiple final pressing and sintering steps, which developed a preferred orientation of the basal planes of the predominantly 2223 BPSCCO phase within the tape Jc values greater than 104 A cm-2 at 4.2 K were obtained, and these decreased smoothly as the field and temperature were increased. No evidence of any catastrophic change in Jc(H) was seen at any temperature, thus suggesting that flux line lattice melting is not controlling the Jc of these tapes.