High current, low cost YBCO conductors-what's next?

The Holy Grail for high temperature superconducting conductors is achieving high current material in a simple and cost-effective way. The current status is encouraging but even after more than twenty years of intense worldwide research, there are still many new avenues to be explored. Innovative functional oxide materials science is central to future progress. This paper discusses three key areas of our research focusing on new directions: highly tailored flux pinning using the new core pinning additives R3TaO7 and RBa2NbO6 for control of nanostructure formation; pinning using magnetic phase additives such as RFeO3 with the potential for a magnetic contribution to the flux pinning; and the use of liquid assisted growth enabling very high growth rates leading to thick films with no critical current degradation.