A research team from Northwestern University, in cooperation with Fermilab, has developed a new method for producing ceramic high-temperature superconductors using 3D printing. The special feature of this process is the monocrystalline microstructure achieved, which could previously only be achieved using conventional manufacturing processes. The results were published in the journal Nature Communications and mark a step forward for the use of superconducting materials in complex geometries.
In contrast to conventionally printed superconductors, which have a polycrystalline structure and therefore poorer magnetic properties, the new method uses a two-stage process. First, a ceramic structure made of yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) is produced using an additive process. This is followed by a top-seeded melt growth process, in which a single-crystal seed of neodymium barium copper oxide (NdBCO) is applied and the component is selectively melted and slowly cooled. This controlled recrystallization causes the crystal structures of the entire component to align with the seed, resulting in an almost monocrystalline structure.
“This new technology will enable new magnet designs, leading to higher performances and potentially even allow the production of a new generation of superconducting radio-frequency cavities”, said Cristian Boffo, Fermilab.
“Using liquid nitrogen, it’s much less expensive to cool down the structure to where it becomes superconducting,” said David Dunand, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University who performed the research.
The use of ceramic high-temperature superconductors, which can be cooled with liquid nitrogen, is also advantageous from a practical point of view.
“If we want to use it for accelerators, we need to print larger parts,” said Dingchang Zhang, who completed his PhD at Northwestern in August 2024. “If we want to get bigger parts, how will we place the seeds? Whether that will have other problems, we don’t know.”
“This new technology will enable new magnet designs, leading to higher performances and potentially even allow the production of a new generation of superconducting radio-frequency cavities,” said Boffo. “I think that this was a very successful collaboration.”
In the long term, the process opens up opportunities to produce larger and more efficient superconducting components for use in particle physics and beyond. Further research will now investigate how multiple nuclei can be used simultaneously to additively generate large-volume single-crystal structures.
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