Voltage-ampere characteristics of YBCO coated conductor under inhomogeneous oscillating magnetic field

Abstract

Direct current carrying type II superconductors present a dynamic resistance when subjected to an oscillating magnetic field perpendicular to the current direction. If a superconductor is under a homogeneous field with high magnitude, the dynamic resistance value is nearly independent of transport current. Hoffmann and coworkers [C. Hoffmann, D. Pooke, and A. D. Caplin, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 21, 1628 (2011)] discovered, however, flux pumping effect when a superconducting tape is under an inhomogeneous field orthogonal to the tape surface generated by rotating magnets. Following their work, we report the whole Voltage-Ampere (V-I) curves of an YBCO coated conductor under permanent magnets rotating with different frequencies and directions. We discovered that the two curves under opposite rotating directions differ from each other constantly when the transport current is less than the critical current, whereas the difference gradually reduces after the transport current exceeds the critical value. We also find that for different field frequencies, the difference between the two curves decreases faster with lower field frequency. The result indicates that the transport loss is dependent on the relative direction of the transport current and field travelling, which is distinct from traditional dynamic resistance model. The work may be instructive for the design of superconducting motors.