REBa2Cu3Ox (REBCO, RE = rare earth elements) coated conductors can carry high current in high background fields, in principle enabling dipole magnetic fields beyond 20 T. Although model accelerator magnets wound with single REBCO tapes have been successfully demonstrated, magnet technology based on high-current REBCO cables for high-field accelerator magnet applications has yet to be established. We developed a two-layer canted cosθ dipole magnet with an aperture of 70 mm using 30 m long commercial Conductor on Round Core (CORC®) wires. The 3.1 mm diameter CORC® wire contained 16 commercial REBCO tapes with a 30 μm thick substrate. The magnet was tested at 77 and 4.2 K. It generated a peak dipole field of 1.2 T with 4.8 kA at 4.2 K with neither thermal runaway nor training. Reasonable geometric field quality and strong magnetization-current effects with multipole decay were observed. Our work demonstrated a feasible high-temperature superconducting magnet technology as a first step toward a new accelerator magnet paradigm that will enable high-field inserts for next-generation circular colliders and stand-alone magnets that can operate over a wide temperature range for a broad range of applications.

REBCO coated conductors maintain a high engineering current density above 16 T at 4.2 K. That fact will significantly impact markets of various magnet applications including high-field magnets for high-energy physics and fusion reactors. One of the main challenges for the high-field accelerator magnet is the use of multi-tape REBCO cables with high engineering current density in magnet development. Several approaches developing high-field accelerator magnets using REBCO cables are demonstrated. In this paper, we introduce an alternative concept based on the canted cos θ (CCT) magnet design using conductor on round core (CORC®) wires that are wound from multiple REBCO tapes with a Cu core. We report the development and test of double-layer three-turn CCT dipole magnets using CORC® wires at 77 and 4.2 K. The scalability of the CCT design allowed us to effectively develop and demonstrate important magnet technology features such as coil design, winding, joints and testing with minimum conductor lengths. The test results showed that the CCT dipole magnet using CORC® wires was a viable option in developing a REBCO accelerator magnet. One of the critical development needs is to increase the engineering current density of the 3.7 mm diameter CORC® wire to 540 A mm-2 at 21 T, 4.2 K and to reduce the bending radius to 15 mm. This would enable a compact REBCO dipole insert magnet to generate a 5 T field in a background field of 16 T at 4.2 K.

Although the high-temperature superconducting (HTS) REBa2Cu3O x (REBCO, RE-rare earth elements) material has a strong potential to enable dipole magnetic fields above 20 T in future circular particle colliders, the magnet and conductor technology needs to be developed. As part of an ongoing development to address this need, here we report on our CORC® canted cosθ magnet called C2 with a target dipole field of 3 T in a 65 mm aperture. The magnet was wound with 70 m of 3.8 mm diameter CORC® wire on machined metal mandrels. The wire had 30 commercial REBCO tapes from SuperPower Inc. each 2 mm wide with a 30 µm thick substrate. The magnet generated a peak dipole field of 2.91 T at 6.290 kA, 4.2 K. The magnet could be consistently driven into the flux-flow regime with reproducible voltage rise at an engineering current density between 400-550 A mm-2, allowing reliable quench detection and magnet protection. The C2 magnet represents another successful step towards the development of high-field accelerator magnet and CORC® conductor technologies. The test results highlighted two development needs: continue improving the performance and flexibility of CORC® wires and develop the capability to identify locations of first onset of flux-flow voltage.

A dipole magnet generating 20 T and beyond will require high-temperature superconductors such as Bi2Sr2CaCu2O 8 − x and REBa2Cu3O 7 − x (RE = rare earth, rebco). Symmetric tape round (star®) wires based on rebco tapes are emerging as a potential conductor for such a magnet, demonstrating a whole-conductor current density of 580 A mm−2 at 20 T, 4.2 K, and at a bend radius of 15 mm. There are, however, few magnet developments using star® wires. Here we report a subscale canted cos θ dipole magnet as an initial experiment for two purposes: to evaluate the conductor performance in a magnet configuration and to start developing the magnet technology, leveraging the small bend radius afforded by star® wires. The magnet was wound with two star® wires, electrically in parallel and without transposition. We tested the magnet at 77 and 4.2 K. The magnet reached a peak current of 8.9 kA, 78% of the short-sample prediction at 4.2 K, and a whole-conductor current density of 1500 A mm−2. The experiment demonstrated a minimum viable concept for dipole magnet applications using star® wires. The results also allowed us to identify further development needs for star® conductors and associated magnet technology to enable high-field rebco magnets.