On the verge of high temperature superconducting fibers

•We fabricated fibers with yttrium barium copper oxide and bismuth strontium oxide calcium cores and fused silica claddings.•The superconductor fibers maintained core diameters of 100–200 µm and overall diameters of 300–700 µm.•We fabricated a prototype fiber with holes surrounding a superconductor core material.•We proposed a compact superconducting fiber design for efficient cryogenic cooling.•We demonstrated a cost-effective method of fabricating long lengths of superconducting fibers that are readily scaleable.

High temperature Type II superconducting materials were fabricated as fibers with a melt-draw technique. The yttrium barium copper oxide and bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide fibers maintained core diameters of 100–200 µm and overall diameters of 300–600 µm. Material characterization demonstrated both material and process compatibility. A fiber with yttrium barium copper oxide core and cladding holes is proposed as a compact and an efficient cooling design. Demonstration of fibers with Type II superconducting core materials and the potential integration with current state of the art technologies represents the first step in achieving the over-arching desire for superconducting wires with conventional geometries.

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