MgB2
Introduction
Magnesium diboride, MgB2, was first reported to be superconducting in 2001. The discovery of superconductivity at a temperature of 38-40 K in an intermetallic material, very much higher than the Tc of A15 superconductors like Nb3Sn, resulted in widespread investigation of MgB2, as well as a revived search for new superconducting materials.
Early Work in Cambridge
Initial work on MgB2 in Cambridge focussed on the production of powder-in-tube conductors. Bartek Glowacki produced the first conductors of this type in Europe, as reported in the department newsletter and our publications. Conductors have been produced by both in situ and ex situ techniques. In the former case, magnesium and boron are packed into the tube and subsequently reacted; in the latter, MgB2 powder itself is packed in the tube.
 Ex-situ, sintered MgB2 in a copper matrix |
 In-situ, reacted MgB2 in a copper matrix |
Copper, silver and stainless steel tubes have all been investigated, with a particular specialisation in copper (see above). Reinforced cables combining several materials have also been constructed, as illustrated below.
 Copper matrix MgB2 strands twisted around a stainless steel core |
Current Work
Research in this group continues to focus on the development of powder-in-tube conductors, working towards three specialist applications:
- Fine wire for a space-qualified adiabatic demagnetisation refrigerator (ADR) - see project page
- Magnetic resonance imaging
- Fusion applications
Our ADR project, in collaboration with the Mullard Space Science Laboratory and Scientific Magnetics (formerly Space Cryomagnetics), is the main focus of our conductor development work, and is supported by a PPARC Industrial Programme Support Scheme (PIPSS) grant (ref. PP/C503397/1).
A significant amount of work has also been performed on synthesis and doping techniques for magnesium diboride. Additionally, our experience with in situ resistometric characterisation is being applied to MgB2 conductors to gain a better understanding of reaction processes, with the aim of optimising design and processing.
Related processes and techniques
Related publications
| Showing 24 publications related to MgB2 in reverse date order. Links to online copies of these papers may require a journal subscription (personal or institutional). | |
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| 2010 | |
| 1 | M. Woźniak, S. C. Hopkins and B. A. Glowacki, Study of short duration heat treatments of an in situ copper-sheathed MgB2 wire Superconductor Science and Technology, 23 (10) 105009 (October 2010) | DOI: 10.1088/0953-2048/23/10/105009 |
| 2 | A Kario, A Morawski, W Häßler, M Herrmann, C Rodig, M Schubert, K Nenkov, B Holzapfel, L Schultz, B A Glowacki and S C Hopkins, Novel ex situ MgB2 barrier for in situ monofilamentary MgB2 conductors with Fe and Cu sheath material Superconductor Science and Technology, 23 (2) 025018 (February 2010) | DOI: 10.1088/0953-2048/23/2/025018 |
| 2008 | |
| 3 | B.A. Glowacki and W.J. Nuttall, Assessment of liquid hydrogen cooled MgB2 conductors for magnetically confined fusion Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 97 012333 (March 2008) | DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/97/1/012333 EUCAS '07: 8th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity, Brussels, Belgium, 16-20 September 2007 |
| 2007 | |
| 4 | A. Kario, A. Morawski, B.A. Glowacki, T. Lada, M. Smaga, R. Diduszko, D. Kolesnikov, A.J. Zaleski, A. Kondrat and D. Gajda, Superconducting and microstructural properties of (Mg+2B)+MgB2/Cu wires obtained by high gas pressure technology Acta Physica Polonica A, 111 (5) 693-703 (May 2007) | View paper online |
| 5 | S.C. Hopkins, A. Morawski, B.A. Glowacki, I.D. Hepburn, C. Brockley-Blatt, S. Milward, S. Harrison, M.H. Hancock, N. Bay, A.J. Zaleski, Design Considerations for MgB2 ADR Superconducting Coils Proceedings of ICMC '06, Volume 2, 157 (2007) CryoPrague 2006, incorporating ICMC '06: International Cryogenic Materials Conference 2006, Prague, Czech Republic, 17-21 July 2006 |
| 2006 | |
| 6 | S.X. Dou, W.K. Yeoh, O. Shcherbakova, D. Weyler, Y. Li, Z.M. Ren, P. Munroe, S.K. Chen, K.S. Tan, B.A. Glowacki, J.L. MacManus-Driscoll, Alignment of carbon nanotube additives for improved performance of magnesium diboride superconductors Advanced Materials, 18 (6) 785 (17 March 2006) | DOI: 10.1002/adma.200501617 |
| 7 | B.A. Glowacki, M. Majoros, K. Tanaka, H. Kitaguchi, H. Kumakura, M. Okada, M. Hirakawa, H. Yamada, M.H. Hancock and N. Bay, Critical current and cryogenic stability modelling of filamentary MgB2 conductors Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 43 103-6 (July 2006) | DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/43/1/026 EUCAS '05: 7th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity, Vienna, Austria, 11-15 September 2005 |
| 8 | S K Chen and B A Glowacki, The influence of unidirectional copper alloying on the critical current density of MgB2 Superconductor Science and Technology, 19 (1) 116-121 (January 2006) | DOI: 10.1088/0953-2048/19/1/019 |
| 2005 | |
| 9 | S. K. Chen, K. S. Tan, B. A. Glowacki, W. K. Yeoh, S. Soltanian, J. Horvat and S. X. Dou, Effect of heating rates on superconducting properties of pure MgB2, carbon nanotube- and nano-SiC-doped in situ MgB2/Fe wires Applied Physics Letters, 87 182504 (31 October 2005) | DOI: 10.1063/1.2126148 |
| 10 | S. K. Chen, Z. Lockman, M. Wei, B. A. Glowacki, and J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, Improved current densities in MgB2 by liquid-assisted sintering Applied Physics Letters, 86 242501 (13 June 2005) | DOI: 10.1063/1.1947374 |
| 11 | S. K Chen, Z. Lockman, C. Dancer, B. A. Glowacki and J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, Improvements in critical current with second phase additions to MgB2 MRS Spring Meeting 2005, (2005) MRS Spring Meeting 2005, San Francisco, USA |
| 12 | S. K. Chen, M. Majoros, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll and B. A. Glowacki, In situ and ex situ Cu doping on MgB2 Physica C, 418 (3-4) 99 (1 February 2005) | DOI: 10.1016/j.physc.2004.11.011 |
| 2004 | |
| 13 | Chunxiang Cui, Debao Liu, Yutian Shen, Jinbin Sun, Fanbin Meng, Ru Wang, Shuangjin Liu, A.L. Greer, Soo Kien Chen, B.A.Glowacki, Nanoparticles of the superconductor MgB2: structural characterization and in situ study of synthesis kinetics Acta Materialia, 52 (20) 5757 (1 December 2004) | DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2004.08.033 |
| 14 | S K Chen, B A Glowacki, J L MacManus-Driscoll, M E Vickers and M Majoros, Influence of in situ and ex situ ZrO2 addition on the properties of MgB2 Superconductor Science and Technology, 17 (2) 243 (February 2004) | DOI: 10.1088/0953-2048/17/2/002 |
| 15 | M. Majoros A.M. Campbell, B.A. Glowacki, R.I. Tomov, Numerical modeling of heating and current-sharing effects on I-V curves of YBa2Cu3O7 and MgB2 conductors Physica C, 401 (1-4) 140 (15 January 2004) | DOI: 10.1016/j.physc.2003.09.025 |
| 2003 | |
| 16 | S. K. Chen, B. A. Glowacki, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll, M. Majoros, M. E. Vickers and S. H. Pawar, Mechanical alloying and Cu substitution on MgB2 Inst. Phys. Conf. Ser., No. 181 1242-1248 (2003) EUCAS '03: 6th European Conference on Applied Superconductivity, Sorrento, Italy, 14-18 September 2003 |
| 17 | B.A.Glowacki, M.Majoros, M.Eisterer, S.Toenies, H.W.Weber, M.Fukutomi, K.Komori, and K.Togano, MgB2 superconductors for applications Physica C, 387 153 (2003) |
| 18 | B.A.Glowacki, M.Majoros, M.Vicker, M. Eisterer, S. Toenies, H.W. Weber, M. Fukutomi, K. Komori, and K.Togano, Composite Cu/Fe/MgB2 superconducting wires and MgB2 tapes for AC and DC applications Superconductor Science and Technology, 16 297 (2003) |
| 2002 | |
| 19 | M.Eisterer, B.A.Glowacki, H.W.Weber, L.R.Greenwood, M.Majoros, Enhanced transport currents in Cu-sheathed MgB2 wires Superconductor Science and Technology, 15 1088 (2002) |
| 20 | M.Majoros, B.A.Glowacki and M.E.Vickers, 50 K anomalies in superconducting MgB2 wires in copper and silver tubes Superconductor Science and Technology, 15 269 (2002) |
| 21 | B.A.Glowacki, and M.Majoros, MgB2 conductors for dc and ac applications Physica C, 372-376 1235 (2002) |
| 22 | B.A.Glowacki, M.Majoros, M.E.Vickers and B.Zaimetz, Superconducting properties of the powder-in-tube Cu-Mg-B and Ag-Mg-B wires Physica C, 372-376 (Part 2) 1254 (August 2002) | DOI: 10.1016/S0921-4534(02)00986-3 |
| 2001 | |
| 23 | B.A.Glowacki, M.Majoros, The MgB2 superconducting conductors for dc and ac applications MONOGRAPH in Studies of HTS superconductors (Advances in Research and Applications) MgB2 ed. A. Narlikar, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Huntington, New York, 38 p.361-396 (2001) |
| 24 | B.A.Glowacki, M.Majoros, M.Vickers, J.E.Evetts, Y.Shi and I.McDougall, Superconductivity of powder-in-tube MgB2 wires Superconductor Science and Technology, 14 (4) 193 (April 2001) | DOI: 10.1088/0953-2048/14/4/304 Highly cited |