• CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 months ago

    Especially now that we’ve managed to grow them on wires. That’s one of those big turning points that nobody tracked as it happened.

    • threelonmusketeers
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      3 months ago

      Can we make flexible, ductile, high-temperature super conductors now? Or have we settled for packing a flexible tube full of powder, Pixy Stix style?

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 months ago

        Actual, flexible, ductile ribbons. It’s a new thing just in the last few years. The key turns out to be some kind of high-energy ion beam bombardment as the crystal is growing on the ordinary metal substrate.

        The pixy stix wires produced pretty crummy quality superconductor, AFAIK, besides just being harder to work with.

        Edit: Actually, the HTS itself is still a ceramic, so probably not ductile. Flexible and tough, though.