Trial Manufacturing of Jelly-Rolled Nb/Al Monofilamentary Wire with Very Small Diameter below 50 microns

Abstract

Jelly-rolled Nb/Al composite monofilamentary wires having an outer diameter of 50 microns and more than 100 meters in length were successfully fabricated. Moreover, some of these thin wires were additional drawn to 30 microns in outer diameter in this study. We recognized again that jelly-rolled Nb/Al composite monofilamentary wires have excellent cold workability and drawability. The transmission electron microscopic observation revealed that the niobium and aluminum laminations retained a nano-scaled fiber composite structure in the longitudinal direction like the microarchitecture of Japanese bamboo, even in the very thin wire with an outer diameter of 30 μm. The thickness of the aluminum sheet is approximately 70 nm, which is almost comparable to the value calculated from the reduction ratio. The critical temperature of 16.2 K (on set) and 15.7 K (off set) were obtained after the diffusion reaction at 850°C for 10 h. The transport critical currents in liquid helium (4.2 K) under external magnetic fields of 1 T and 8 T are 7.2 A and 0.7 A, corresponding to non-Cu critical current densities of 15,000 and 1,500 A/mm2, respectively. These values are greater than those of industrial Nb-Ti and MgB2 commercial multifilamentary wires.