A Review of the Properties of Nb3Sn and Their Variation with A15 Composition, Morphology and Strain State

Abstract

This article gives an overview of the available literature on simplified, well defined (quasi-)homogeneous laboratory samples. After more than 50 years of research on superconductivity in Nb3Sn, a significant amount of results are available, but these are scattered over a multitude of publications. Two reviews exist on the basic properties of A15 materials in general, but no specific review for Nb3Sn is available. This article is intended to provide such an overview. It starts with a basic description of the Niobium-Tin intermetallic. After this it maps the influence of Sn content on the the electron-phonon interaction strength and on the field-temperature phase boundary. The literature on the influence of Cu, Ti and Ta additions will then be briefly summarized. This is followed by a review on the effects of grain size and strain. The article is concluded with a summary of the main results.

Invited Topical Review for Superconductor, Science and Technology. Provisionally scheduled for July 2006

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• A general scaling relation for the critical current density in Nb3Sn
• The upper critical field of filamentary Nb3Sn conductors
• Specific heat of Nb_3Sn: The case for a second energy gap
• Enhancement of the upper critical field of Nb3Sn utilizing disorder introduced by ball milling the elements

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