Influence of production parameters on the superconducting properties of NbTi and Nb/sub 3/Sn wires

The commercial specification of superconducting NbTi and Nb/sub 3/Sn composite wires is normally given by parameters such as the critical current (which is dependent on conductivity, temperature, and magnetic field), an empirically deduced parameter for which the effective resistivity is about 10/sup -14/ Omega m, wire and filament diameter, and twist length. To some extent their values cannot be chosen independently, nor do they guarantee proper operation of the system in all aspects. It is argued that for Nb/sub 3/Sn composite, depending on the production process, an extra set of parameters describing the stress sensitivity seems to be needed to specify the quality of the composite.