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Materials Science and Engineering Building
1509 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706

larbales@engr.wisc.edu

Primary Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering

Additional Affiliations:
Materials Science Program, Physics

Profile Summary

The fundamental interest of our group is in understanding the transport of supercurrent in superconductors and their critical fields. The magnitude of the supercurrent density Jc is the most important factor controlling applications. We must understand the physics of the interactions of magnetic flux vortices with the nanoscale defects found in real superconductors, since the flux pinning force exerted by the nanostructure on the vortices controls the supercurrent density. Thus we must fabricate the materials, analyze the microstructure at all relevant length scales and correlate the fabrication process and the microstructure to the superconducting properties. We are intensely interactive, both within the Applied Superconductivity Center and with the broader research and applications community. Our work is supported by multi-investigator grants from several branches of DOE, NSF, AFOSR and other agencies. We collaborate with several leading industrial and national laboratory groups.

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