• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.75-81
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• 2011

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.