CRITICAL CURRENT PROPERTIES OF V3GA WITH 3RD ELEMENT ADDITIONS

Critical current densities of over 1.7 × 106 Acm-2 at 10T and 4.2K have been achieved in multifilamentary V3Ga wire produced by a modified bronze technique. Attempts to further improve this value were made by adding a third element, either Ti or Zr, to the V-Ga alloy filaments along with Al to the Cu-Ga matrix. The effects of reaction temperature and layer thickness with the third element additions were qualitatively similar to those measured for wires without third element additions, ie lower reaction temperatures and smaller layer thickness gave higher Jc values. At low reaction temperatures, these composite wires with third element additions exhibited slower growth rates and lower Jc values than those obtained for V-Ga cores in a Cu-Ga matrix, at higher temperatures just the opposite was true. In all cases, however, the Jc values obtained were lower than the best we have been able to achieve using V + Ga filaments and Cu + Ga matrix under optimum conditions. © 1979.