Evaluation of joint resistance between Bi-2223/Ag superconducting tapes

We fabricated Bi-2223/Ag jointed tape and evaluated its current carrying capacity and joint resistance at 77.3 K as a function of the contact length. The tapes were jointed by the conventional resistive joint method with 40Pb-60Sn solder as an insert material and their joint resistance was measured by two different techniques, i.e., the standard four-probe and field decay methods. It was observed that the current carrying capacity and joint resistance were significantly dependent on the contact length. As the contact length increased, the current carrying capacity improved and increased to the level of critical current in the unjoined tape at the contact length of 5 cm. On the other hand, the joint resistance linearly decreased as the contact length increased. In addition, the joint resistances measured by the two methods were similar to each other (7.3 x 10(-9) Omega similar to 8.0 x 10(-9) Omega), indicating that the standard four-probe method maintained a moderate degree of accuracy at the level of resistance of 10(-9) Omega.