The promise of high temperature, superconducting ceramic materials is well known. However, there are many practical difficulties involved in fabricating technologically useful conductors from these materials. The Phase I effort has demonstrated the usefulness of a laser-driven solidifaction process in producing high temperature superconducting wires with a controlled orientation of the ceramic crystals to improve the conducting properties. The Phase II research objectives include design of a computer-controlled, laser-driven directional solidification furnace, determination of the best extrusion parameters for the precursor material, characterization and testing of the wires which are produced and scale-up of the process.
