We report on the progress that has been made in developing $MgB_2$ superconducting wires and tapes for commercialization and research efforts. A number of techniques have been developed to overcome the obstacle posed by the poor critical current density ($J_c$) of pristine $MgB_2$. Chemical doping has proved to be the effective way to modify and enhance the superconducting properties, such as the $J_c$ and the irreversibility field ($B_{irr}$). More than 100 different types of dopants have been investigated over the past 8 years. Among these, the most effective dopants have been identified to be SiC and malic acid ($C_4H_6O_5$). The best results, viz. a $B_{irr}$ of 22 T and $J_c$ of $30,000\;A{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ at 4.2 K and 10 T, were reported for malic acid doped $MgB_2$ wires, which matched the benchmark performance of commercial low temperature superconductor wires. In this work, we discuss the progress made in $MgB_2$ conductors over the past few years at the University of Wollongong, Hyper Tech Research, Inc., and Ohio State University.

We studied the trapped field properties of bulk Y-Ba-Cu-O superconductors by applying 3 T of the permanent or $Nb_3Ti$ superconducting magnet. The 28 mm circular type of YBCO bulk superconductor was prepared and then hole at the center of bulk, parallel to the c-axis, was mechanically drilled. Typical size of hole in YBCO bulk was 10 mm in diameter. In order to examine the trapped field variation in terms of different impregnated materials, a hole in YBCO bulk was filled with resin and indium respectively. The trapped field decay due to flux flow was determined in terms of time. Our preliminary result indicates the trapped field value measured on the YBCO without hole after 30 minute by applying 3 T, was 6,500 G, which is much higher than that, 4,500 G, measured on YBCO with hole. Also, we confirmed that the tendency of a trapped field decrement with time was almost the same regardless of the impregnated materials in YBCO.

특수합금 등 금속분말을 이용하는 분말압연 공정을 적용하여 $MgB_2$ 판재를 제조하고 공정변수에 대한 특성을 조사하였다. 압연롤 간격 0.7 mm와 회전속도 0.7 rpm(~120 cm/min) 조건에서 두께 ~1 mm, 폭 ~100 mm, 그리고 길이 수 cm 크기의 $MgB_2$ 판재를 성공적으로 제조하였으며, 측정된 최고 밀도는 2.05 g/$cm^3$이고 이론 값 대비 약 78 %로 계산되었다. 분말압연 공정을 통해 최종 선재의 크기(특히 두께 측면에서)에 가깝게 공정을 시작할 수 있고 높은 충진 밀도를 유지할 수 있으므로 초전도 선재의 특성 향상과 더불어 생산 비용, 생산속도 측면에서도 매우 유리한 방법이 될 것이다. 또한 자기장하 $MgB_2$ 초전도 특성 향상을 위해 자속 고정점 역할을 할 다양한 도핑 물질(분말 형태 또는 액체 형태 등)을 첨가하는 공정에 있어서 도 본 분말압연 공정을 쉽게 적용될 수 있다.

Pinning force is the mechanism between a superconductor and a permanent magnet and it provides a stable levitation. However, when external force greater than the pinning force such as the earthquake exerts, the levitated object may lose the levitating characteristic. In order to achieve more stabilized levitation, the copper plate was inserted in between a superconductor and permanent magnets. And by applying the eddy current effect caused from the relationship between a copper plate and permanent magnets, more stabilized levitation can be established. In this study, an optimized design was found based on various configurations of permanent magnet's polarity, thickness and area of copper plate, and the gap distance between copper plate and permanent magnet. As results, higher eddy current value was obtained at where the change of polarity exists in permanent magnet configuration, and the highest eddy current value was observed at the copper plate thickness of 5 mm and the area of 80 mm ${\times}$ 80 mm. From the resulted optimized conditions above, which are 7 mm gap distance between a superconductor and permanent magnets and 80 mm ${\times}$ 80 mm ${\times}$ 5 mm dimension of a copper plate, the stiffness value was 65 % increased comparing to without any copper plate insertion.

We performed angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) studies on Ru doped $BaFe_2As_2$ with various Ru contents. Ru, which is doped into a parent compound $BaFe_2As_2$ and substitute Fe, does not donate or accept electrons. However, it induces superconductivity. From ARPES data along the high symmetry cuts and Fermi surface maps, we investigate the electron correlation and carrier density at the Fermi level. We observe that the Fermi velocity increases with Ru doping, suggesting reduction in electron correlation. In addition, we address issues on local vs. itinerant pictures for the magnetism in $BaFe_2As_2$.

We have investigated the anisotropy of the superconducting properties for $CaC_6$ and $SrC_6$ using upper critical fields ($H_{c2}$) and specific heat ($C_p$). From the upper critical fields of $CaC_6$ at different magnetic field orientations, H//c and H// ab, the anisotropy is found to be ~ 5 at low temperatures, much larger than that of $SrC_6$. These results are in contrast to the stronger anisotropy in the electronic structure for $SrC_6$ than for $CaC_6$ indicating a stronger anisotropy in the superconducting gap in $CaC_6$. The findings are confirmed by the temperature dependence of the superconducting specific heat below $T_c$ for $CaC_6$ and $SrC_6$, suggesting the important role of anisotropic electron-phonon coupling in superconducting intercalated graphites.

We have grown a Nb/Gd bilayer on a$SiO_2$/Si substrate by using a DC magnetron sputtering system, which was fabricated in situ with silicon stencil masks. In order to investigate proximity effect of the Nb/Gd bilayer, we used a planar tunnel junction with an AlOx tunnel barrier by oxidizing the Al ground electrode at the bottom. A $Co_{60}Fe_{40}$ backing of Al was deposited so as to reduce the superconductivity of the Al, ensuring a normal counterelectrode. With a 50-nm-thick Nb layer, we have measured dI/dV (dynamic conductance) by varying the thickness of Gd, which can reveal the density of states (DOS) of the Nb/Gd bilayer as a function of the Gd thickness resulting from the proximity effect of a superconductor/ferromagnet bilayer (S/F). The SF proximity effect in Nb/Gd will be discussed in comparison to our previous results of the CoFe/Nb, Ni/Nb and CuNi/Nb proximity effect; Gd is expected to show different effects since Gd has f-electrons, while CoFe, Ni, and CuNi have only d-electrons. Our studies will focus on the triplet correlation in a superconducting pair.

We report our efforts on the development of Nb-based non-hysteretic Josephson junction fabrication process for quantu device applications. By adopting and modifying the existing Nb-aluminum oxide tunnel junction process, we develop a process for non-hysteretic Josephson junction circuits using metal-silicide as metallic barrier material. We use sputter deposition of Nb and $MoSi_2$, PECVD deposition of silicon oxide as insulator material, and ICP-RIE for metal and oxide etch. The advantage of the metal-silicide barrier in the Nb junction process is that it can be etched in $SF_6$ RIE together with Nb electrode. In order to define a junction area precisely and uniformly, end-point detection for the RIE process is critical. In this paper, we employed thin Al layer for the etch stop, and optimized the etch condition. We have successfully demonstrated that the etch stop properties of the inserted Al layer give a uniform etch profile and a precise thickness control of the base electrode in Nb trilayer junctions.

The properties of $2^{nd}$ generation high temperature superconducting wire, coated conductor strongly depend on the quality of superconducting oxide layer and property of metal substrate is one of the most important factors affecting the quality of coated conductor. Good mechanical and chemical stability at high temperature are required to maintain the initial integrity during the various process steps required to deposit several layers consisting coated conductor. And substrate need to be nonmagnetic to reduce magnetization loss for ac application. Hastelloy and stainless steel are the most suitable alloys for metal substrate. One of the obstacles in using stainless steel as substrate for coated conductor is its difficulties in making smooth surface inevitable for depositing good IBAD layer. Conventional method involves several steps such as electro polishing, deposition of $Al_2O_3$ and $Y_2O_3$ before IBAD process. Chemical solution deposition method can simplify those steps into one step process having uniformity in large area. In this research, we tried to improve the surface roughness of stainless steel(SUS310). The precursor coating solution was synthesized by using yttrium complex. The viscosity of coating solution and heat treatment condition were optimized for smooth surface. A smooth amorphous $Y_2O_3$ thin film suitable for IBAD process was coated on SUS310 tape. The surface roughness was improved from 40nm to 1.8 nm by 4 coatings. The IBAD-MgO layer deposited on prepared substrate showed good in plane alignment(${\Delta}{\phi}$) of $6.2^{\circ}$.

We have developed a high-$T_C$ SQUID magnetometer system to measure magnetocardiograms of laboratory rats. White noise of the measurement system was about 50 fT/$Hz^{1/2}$ when measured in a magnetically shielded box. We optimized the measurement position to obtain clear MCG wave from rat's small heart by using grid measurements. With the optimization, the MCG signal was successfully detected with the peak amplitude of about 50 pT. We could observe well defined P-, QRS-, and T-wave from the rat MCG. The results suggest that the developed system has a strong potential to monitor the progress of heart disease model using laboratory rat.