Transport behavior and critical current densities in MgB2 wires

We report on the transport and magnetization properties of MgB2 wires fabricated by a powder-in-tube (PIT) technique. Temperature and magnetic-field-dependent resistivity displays a high conductivity and upper critical field H-c2 generally observed in dense samples. The electronic mass anisotropy gamma approximate to1.3 +/-0.15 predicts some texturing in the wire. Our data on transition temperature T-C, H-c2, and both magnetic and transport critical current density J(c) indicate that MgB2 can be manufactured in a wire form using a PIT technique and required engineering J(c) can be achieved on further optimization. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.