Setup for fast-pulsed measurements of large critical currents

C.D'OVIDIO; D.A. ESPARZA; M.T. MALACHEVSKY

PHYSICA B - CONDENSED MATTER

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2000 vol. 284 p. 2091 - 2092

0921-4526

We describe a set of equipments for pulsed measurements of transport critical currents in superconducting materials having a critical current of tens or hundreds of amperes. It is based on the appliance of an electrical current for a very short period of time, rapid enough to preserve the integrity of the current leads and to minimize the Joule e!ect. Power is applied to the wire}sample setup and the voltage drop is measured within seconds, with a resolution of the order of 10 nV. In this way the I}< characteristics can be obtained with a 1% error, if the 1 lV/cm criterion is employed. The hardware is composed of three parts: the current pulse generator, a fast low-noise voltage ampli"er and a PC with a DAC}ADC card. The data acquisition is achieved via an Assembler program.