Efficient cooling of superconducting fiber core via holey cladding

• We fabricated a silica fiber with a superconducting core and ordered cladding holes.
• Ordered hole superconducting fibers were fabricated via a melt-draw technique.
• Superconductivity was achieved via helium infiltration of the ordered holes.
• We proposed a compact efficiently cooled superconducting fiber design.

Superconductivity has the potential to alter the entire landscape of technological advancement and innovation. Unfortunately, its true potential has been limited, in part, by the lack of conventional geometries, adequate stability, cooling efficiencies and in turn, cost. In this study, we demonstrate an optical fiber design with a superconducting core that is cooled via the flow of liquid helium in holes disposed in the fused silica cladding. The efficiently micro cooled superconducting fiber lends itself to low current electronic applications such as ultrasensitive sensing and imaging, quantum measurement instrumentation and supercomputing. Although not presently applicable for large scale applications such as high current transmission lines or motors, the basic approach may be combined with other traditional technologies to improve cooling efficiency and reliability.