Fabricating High-Temperature Superconducting Wires for Future Energy Generation

University at Buffalo, NY

Pulsed laser deposition, in which a laser beam ablates a material that is deposited as a film on a substrate, was used to fabricate the HTS wires. (Image: University at Buffalo)

Our energy future may depend on high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires. This technology’s ability to carry electricity without resistance at temperatures higher than those required by traditional superconductors could revolutionize the electric grid and even enable commercial nuclear fusion.

Yet these large-scale applications won’t happen until HTS wires can be fabricated at a price-performance metric equal to that of the plain copper wire sold at your local hardware store.

New University at Buffalo-led research is moving us closer to that goal. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers report that they have fabricated the world’s highest-performing HTS wire segment while making the price-performance metric significantly more favorable.

Based on rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO), their wires achieved the highest critical current density and pinning force — the amount of electrical current carried and ability to pin down magnetic vortices, respectively — reported to date for all magnetic fields and temperatures from 5 kelvin to 77 kelvin.

This temperature range is still extremely cold — minus 451°F to minus 321 °F — but higher than the absolute zero that traditional superconductors function at.

“These results will help guide industry toward further optimizing their deposition and fabrication conditions to significantly improve the price-performance metric in commercial coated conductors,” said Corresponding Author Amit Goyal, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. “Making the price-performance metric more favorable is needed to fully realize the numerous large-scale, envisioned applications of superconductors.”

Applications of HTS wires include energy generation, such as doubling power generated from offshore wind generators; grid-scale superconducting magnetic energy-storage systems; energy transmission, such as loss-less transmission of power in high current DC and AC transmission lines; and energy efficiency in the form of highly efficient superconducting transformers, motors and fault-current limiters for the grid.

Just one niche application of HTS wires, commercial nuclear fusion, has the potential for generation of limitless clean energy. In just the last few years, approximately 20 private companies have been founded globally to develop commercial nuclear fusion, and billions of dollars have been invested in developing HTS wires for this application alone.

Other applications of HTS wires include next-generation MRI for medicine, next-generation nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for drug discovery and high-field magnets for numerous physics applications. There are also numerous defense applications, such as in the development of all-electric ships and all-electric airplanes.

Presently, most companies around the world fabricating kilometer-long, high performance HTS wires use one or more of the platform technological innovations developed previously by Goyal and his team.

These include rolling assisted biaxially textured substrates (RABiTS) technology, LMOe-enabled ion-beam assisted deposition (IBAD) MgO technology, and nanocolumnar defects at nanoscale spacings via simultaneous phase-separation and strain-driven self-assembly technology.

For more information, contact Tom Dinki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..