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$1 million approved for TCSAM equipment

Lisa Street
The Daily Cougar

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected the University of Houston along with seven other universities to conduct research in the field of high temperature superconductivity -- an area the Universityis Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials specializes in.

High temperature superconductivity, an advancement founded by UH physics professor Paul Chu in 1987, is the ability of certain materials to transmit electricity without loss of energy or resistance. 

Chu developed copper oxide materials that would obtain stable superconductivity at 93 K (-180 C) above the temperature of liquid nitrogen therefor reducing the loss of heat in electricity transfer -- a scientific break though that when applied correctly can provide many economic benefits. 

"The Department of Energy grant that we received was in fact to optimize whatis called second generation superconducting wire," Director of TCSAM Alex Ignatiev said.

The ceramic superconductive material must be made applicable in electricity transmission through the use of wire. This can be achieved by growing the material in extremely thin smooth sheets and layering it around a thin nickel based foil which can bend and function without breaking the ceramic, thus yielding an operational superconductive wire, Ignatiev said.

The Board of Regents approved a $1 million purchase of an Oxxel MBE System for the advanced understanding of HTS.

"The Oxxel MBE System is a large facility that was asymbled in Germany to make the worlds highest quality thin film superconducting layers," Ignatiev said. "That system will allow us to better understand and optimize the science of superconductivity by revealing the crystal order and atomic line up of the superconductor, which when smooth and straightly layered, maximizes the amount of currents that pass through it."

Also the TCSAM is bringing in a new faculty member to help educate and expand the Universityis groundbreaking work in understanding applications in superconductivity.
 

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