Pedro Francisco Gil

Thesis title: Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Laser Cut HTS Tapes

Second generation high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes are based on a thin film of REBa2C3O7 (RE = rare earth) coated on a metallic substrate with several buffer layers fulfilling various functionalities. While the performance of these tapes has reached levels suitable for many applications, they use to be characterised under mild laboratory conditions. There are however many unanswered questions about how the conductor behaves under bending and torsion, especially after laser slitting and with different coatings. The aim of this project is to study the effect of mechanical constraints on the critical current density of HTS tapes with emphasis on failure mechanisms.