Potentials of iron-based superconductors for practical future materials

Since the discovery of high-Tc superconductivity in the REFeAs(O, F) system in 2008, studies on the development of superconducting materials using iron-based superconductors has been undertaken because of their high Hc2 and relatively high Tc. Although the cuprate superconductors exhibit much higher Tc and similar high Hc2, the small degree of electromagnetic anisotropy between the c-axis and ab-plane directions confirmed in 11, 122 and 1111 systems encouraged us to develop more versatile conductors. Single crystals and thin films deposited on single-crystalline and metal substrates have proved that the potentials of the iron-based superconductors are high enough for designing superconducting materials for high field generation. In addition, critical current properties of powder-in-tube processed tapes have been greatly improved in the past two years and are reaching the application level at 4.2 K in high magnetic field. However, the pinning mechanism and determining factors of the critical current properties of the iron-based superconductors have not been well understood. Characteristics and potentials of iron-based superconductors are discussed from various viewpoints in this paper in an effort to understand the current status and future prospects.