Use of second generation coated conductors for efficient shielding of dc magnetic fields

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation of the performance of two types of magnetic screens assembled from YBa ₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) coated conductors. Since effective screening of the axial dc magnetic field requires the unimpeded flow of an azimuthal persistent current, we demonstrate a configuration of a screening shell made out of standard YBCO coated conductor capable to accomplish that. The screen allows the persistent current to flow in the predominantly azimuthal direction at a temperature of 77 K. The persistent screen, incorporating a single layer of superconducting film, can attenuate an external magnetic field of up to 5 mT by more than an order of magnitude. For comparison purposes, another type of screen which incorporates low critical temperature quasipersistent joints was also built. The shielding technique we describe here appears to be especially promising for the realization of large scale high- T_c superconducting screens.