Electromechanical Properties of 1-mm-Wide Superconducting Cables Comprised of Exfoliated YBCO Filaments

Development of multifilament YBCO cables is an important step toward the manufacture of practical superconducting magnets based on second generation high-temperature superconductor technology. Currently, magnets manufactured from wide 2G tapes suffer from high magnetization loss and poor reliability. The presence of an insulation substrate is to insulate YBCO layers from each other, which allows only lateral (along the tape face) current sharing. Here we present an exfoliated multilayer cable with electrically coupled (1 mm wide) filaments that permit normal (across the tape) current sharing within the cable. This development can potentially enable fast ramping and stable high-field magnets for applications in fusion, energy storage, and transportation.