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To use or not to use cool superconductors?

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The high critical temperature and magnetic field in cuprates and Fe-based superconductors are not enough to assure applications at higher temperatures. Making these superconductors useful involves complex and expensive technologies to address many conflicting physics and materials requirements.

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Figure 1: Comparative T-H phase diagram for different superconducting materials.
Figure 2: Weak-link behaviour of grain boundaries in FBS and the cuprates.
Figure 3: A typical architecture of a coated conductor made by ion-beam-assisted deposition5.

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  1. Alex Gurevich is at the Department of Physics, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529, USA.,

    Alex Gurevich

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Gurevich, A. To use or not to use cool superconductors?. Nature Mater 10, 255–259 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2991

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