Making and surviving

Flux pinning

The holding of magnetic flux lines in place by defects engineered into a conductor, since flux that moves dissipates energy and spoils the zero resistance. Processing matters as much as composition.

Why flux pinning matters

Two samples of one composition can carry very different currents because of it, so a formula on its own does not predict what a conductor will do.

Flux pinning in a real conductor

REBCOA layer of rare-earth barium copper oxide a few microns thick, grown on a metal tape, and the conductor that made a compact fusion magnet credible.
MgB₂Magnesium diboride: two cheap, light, abundant elements that turned out in 2001 to superconduct far warmer than any other simple compound.

Related to flux pinning

SuperMatics is a platform infrastructure company for superconducting devices: software that finds the material and the process, lab work that makes and measures it, and pilot manufacturing with industrial partners.If you have a device and a constraint it has to meet, tell us about it.