STABILITY OF POSSIBLE HIGH-Tc-OXIDE SUPERCONDUTORS AS CURRENT CARRIERS

The anticipated behaviour of possible conductors made from high T c oxides are discussed with respect to flux jump stability, cryogenic stabilisation, minimum propagating zones and protection of large energy storing devices, and compared to NbTi. The maximum flux pump field for 123-compounds is close to 8 T (at 75K), for the 120K conductors it may reach 14 T (at 90K), even for the 214-compounds it is 1 T (at 30K). Compared to NbTi with 0.4 T (at 6K) these are enormous improvements. The conductor can therfore be flux jump stable without multifilamentary geometry. For cryostabilisation the new oxides need 3-5 times less copper than NbTi. Their minimum propagating zones are expected to be comparable or larger than those of NbTi. Queech protection will need to be better.