Additional Flux Pinning in Sn-Doped Nb3Al Superconductor

The Nb-3(Al1-xSnx) superconductor with enhanced critical current density (J(c)) is prepared by the process of mechanical alloying (MA) and subsequent low-temperature sintering and the enhancement mechanism of J(c) in Nb-3(Al1-xSnx) is discussed. The analysis of the flux pinning force implies that there is an additional pinning mechanism apart from grain boundary pinning in Nb-3(Al1-xSnx). The existence of dispersed Nb2Al nanoparticles (<30 nm) in Nb-3(Al1-xSnx) is confirmed by microstructure observation. These nanosized Nb2Al particles can serve as flux pinning centers, which leads to the increase of the flux pinning force as well as the enhancement of Nb-3(Al1-xSnx)'s J(c) performance.

Automated summary

The Nb-3(Al1-xSnx) superconductor with enhanced critical current density (J(c)) was prepared by mechanical alloying and low-temperature sintering. It was found that dispersed nanosized Nb2Al particles serve as flux pinning centers in Nb-3(Al1-xSnx), leading to an increase in flux pinning force and enhancement of J(c) performance.