Thermally activated flux creep and critical current densities in high temperature superconductors

The effect of flux creep is discussed for projected strongly pinned oxide superconductors. It is determined, that if a superconducting wire with a critical current density higher than 10-billion A/sq m at 77 K and 5 T can be produced, the wire will be able to be applied to equipment at high fields; nonzero critical density will be obtained even at 77 K and high fields. The decay of persistent current is expected to be noticeable even in such strongly pinned superconductors, when those are used at 77 K. Although this will be managed in power equipment by lowering the operating current; variation in the magnetic field due to the variation in the current distribution inside superconducting wires appears to be unavoidable. It is suggested that an effort should be made to reduce the variation by reducing the diameter of the superconducting filaments. 21 refs