Characterization of the magnetic properties of a continuously coated YBCO coated conductor cylinder in persistent current mode

YBCO coated conductors are good candidates for magnetic shielding applications because of (i) their high current density and (ii) their lower weight compared to magnetic shields made of bulk HTS materials. In particular, an efficient superconducting magnetic shield can be built as an assembly of milled YBCO 2G coated conductor tape sections, or, as in this case, a continuously coated cylinder.
The purpose of the present work is to characterize experimentally the DC magnetic properties of a continuous band of YBCO film (about 1 cm width) deposited around a hastelloy cylinder of 6.4 cm in diameter. In particular, we characterize the distribution and the time dependence of the trapped field inside the cylinder due to persistent current loops. We also investigate the magnetic shielding properties at several sweep rates when the applied magnetic field is parallel to the main axis of the cylinder. All measurements are carried out at 77 K.
The measurement of the trapped field of the cylinder gives evidence that a persistent current of about 80 A can be induced in the YBCO band. Magnetic shielding measurements show that, thanks to the persistent current flowing in the band, the cylinder is able to attenuate by a factor of 2 the applied magnetic field. These results open interesting perspectives for a further development of magnetic shields made of coated conductor cylinders. We investigate how the shielding performances could be further improved by increasing the number of layers and by increasing the height of the cylinder. The results are compared to a multilayer coated conductor cylinder with joints and to persistent current loops obtained with milled coated conductor tape sections.