Characterization of structures with a complex disposition of YBCO coated conductors for magnetic shielding applications

An efficient superconducting magnetic shield can be built as an assembly of YBCO 2G coated conductor sections. Each section is milled and placed around a cylindrical support in order to form a joint free superconducting loop where persistent currents can flow and provide a strong attenuation of a magnetic field. Our previous works have shown that this assembly is able to shield an axial quasi static (“DC”) magnetic field and that the shielding performances depend on the aspect ratio and the number of layers.
The purpose of the present work is to study experimentally the shielding efficiency of several structures with a more complex orientation and position of YBCO coated conductors. Our aim is to design a magnetic shield that would be able to shield a magnetic field directed at any angle with respect to the superconducting loops. Such a structure can be obtained by placing pairs of coated conductors sections along three orthogonal axes.
All experiments are carried out at 77K. The structure is subjected to a quasi-static (“DC”) magnetic field. A Hall probe measures the three components of the local magnetic induction inside the assembly as a function of the applied magnetic induction. The shielding efficiency of the structure is characterized as a function of (i) the magnetic field amplitude, (ii) the position of the Hall probe along the three axes, and (iii) the angles between the applied magnetic field and each axis.
The experimental results allow us to determine the shielding efficiency in the central part of the new 3-axes structure. Although the shielding efficiency is lowered with respect to that of the traditional 1-axis-coil geometry, measurements at different field orientations allow us to identify the role played by each of the pairs of coils in screening the external magnetic field.