Rare-earth barium copper oxide

Some special materials can carry power.

These things help make very strong magnets. They work even when it is not very cold. This is helpful for new tools.

Some people make these into thin tapes. These tapes can help make energy. They can even make small machines for power. They help make machines much smaller. This is a very big deal for science!

Some special materials can carry power without losing it. These are called superconductors. A group of these is called ReBCO.

ReBCO can work at high temperatures. This means they work even when it is not super cold. This helps us build better tools.

One famous ReBCO is called YBCO. It uses yttrium, barium, and copper.

These materials can make very strong magnetic fields. This is useful for fusion reactors. These reactors make energy. They can also help build particle accelerators.

In the past, these materials were hard to use. They were brittle, which means they break easily. Now, companies make them into thin tapes. In 2021, a test magnet used these tapes. It was a very big magnet. It weighed 10 tons.

In 2024, a company used ReBCO for a machine called a tokamak. This machine uses plasma to make power. Using ReBCO helped make the machine much smaller. It was only two percent of the size of older machines. Scientists are still building even bigger magnets now.

ReBCO is a special family of chemical compounds. These materials are known as high-temperature superconductors. This means they can carry power without losing it at higher temperatures. They can also make very strong magnetic fields. This makes them better than many other superconductors. We might use them to build better fusion reactors. They could also help make future particle accelerators.

These materials work by using different elements. You can use any rare-earth element in a ReBCO. Some popular choices are yttrium, lanthanum, and samarium. YBCO is the most famous version. It uses yttrium, barium, and copper. In YBCO, the atoms stack in a specific way. They follow a pattern called [Ba-Y-Ba]. This creates a special shape called an orthorhombic structure.

It was once hard to use these materials. They are brittle, so they break easily. This made it difficult to turn them into wires. After 2010, makers started making them into thin tapes. These tapes have layers to protect the material. This change helped people use them for real jobs. Now, we can use them in many machines.

Many big tests have happened recently. In September 2021, Commonwealth Fusion Systems made a test magnet. This magnet used ReBCO tape to carry 40,000 amperes. It created a magnetic field of 20 tesla. The magnet was huge and weighed 10 tons. It used 16 plates called pancakes. In 2023, a lab made a 32 tesla magnet. A 40T magnet is being built now.

These materials change how we build big machines. In June 2024, a company called Energy Singularity reached a goal. They used ReBCO in a machine called the HH70 tokamak. This machine uses plasma to make energy. Because of ReBCO, the machine was very small. It was only two percent the size of older machines. This helps make reactors more compact and cheaper.

Rare-earth barium copper oxide, often called ReBCO, is a family of chemical compounds. These materials are famous for being high-temperature superconductors. A superconductor is a material that can carry electricity with almost no resistance. In most superconductors, this only happens at extremely cold temperatures. However, ReBCO materials can work at much higher temperatures. This property is very important for modern technology. ReBCO can also sustain much stronger magnetic fields than other superconducting materials. Because of these strengths, scientists want to use them in advanced machines. They are perfect for tools where standard low-temperature superconductors cannot work.

The structure of these materials is very specific at the atomic level. ReBCO is made by combining a rare-earth element with barium and copper. You can use many different rare-earth elements in this formula. Popular choices include lanthanum, samarium, neodymium, gadolinium, and europium. The most well-known version is YBCO, which stands for yttrium barium copper oxide. In YBCO, the atoms follow a specific molar ratio of 1:2:3. This means there is one yttrium atom for every two barium atoms and three copper atoms. The atoms are arranged in a pattern called a perovskite structure.

To understand how YBCO works, we must look at its unit cell. A unit cell is the smallest repeating unit of a crystal structure. In YBCO, the subunits are stacked in a specific sequence. They stack in a pattern of barium, then yttrium, then barium. This sequence is written as [Ba-Y-Ba] along a vertical axis called the c-axis. This specific arrangement creates an orthorhombic structure. This is different from other superconducting cuprates, which usually have a tetragonal structure. The corners of this cell are filled with copper atoms. These copper atoms sit in two different positions, known as Cu(1) and Cu(2). There are also four possible sites where oxygen atoms can stay: O(1), O(2), O(3), and O(4).

Using ReBCO has not always been easy for engineers. One major problem is that these materials are very brittle. Because they are brittle, they snap easily like a piece of ceramic. This made it very difficult to turn the material into flexible wires. However, things changed after the year 2010. Industrial manufacturers found a way to produce ReBCO in the form of tapes. These tapes have different layers that encapsulate the ReBCO material. This protective layering allows the material to be used in much more practical ways. These tapes have opened the door for many commercial uses in the future.

Recent experiments show just how powerful these materials can be. In September 2021, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) tested a new magnet. This magnet used ReBCO tape to carry a massive current of 40,000 amperes. It also created a magnetic field of 20 tesla at a temperature of 20 K. This was a very large experiment, with the magnet weighing 10 tons. The assembly used 16 plates called pancakes. Each pancake had a spiral winding of tape on one side. On the other side, there were channels used for cooling. The team also saved space by not insulating the tape, which lowered the required voltages.

Since that test, magnetic field records have continued to rise. In 2023, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory reached 32 tesla using a ReBCO magnet. Scientists are even working on a 40T superconducting magnet right now. These high magnetic fields are vital for energy research. For example, ReBCO can be used in magnetic confinement fusion reactors like the ARC reactor. Using these materials can make these reactors more compact and economical to build. They can also be used to build future particle accelerators that come after the Large Hadron Collider.

One of the most exciting uses for ReBCO is in fusion energy. In June 2024, a company called Energy Singularity reached a major milestone. They achieved the first plasma in their HH70 tokamak. A tokamak is a machine used to study fusion energy. By using ReBCO as the superconducting material, the company changed the scale of the machine. The HH70 tokamak was only two percent of the size of conventional tokamaks. This shows how ReBCO can make huge scientific machines much smaller and more efficient. This technology connects the study of chemistry and atoms to the future of global energy.