Glossary O-S

OD Outer diameter
OPIT Oxide-powder-in-tube process for manufacturing 1G wire.
PCS Persistent current switch
PCS Power conditioning system
perovskites A family of Type 2 superconductor. These metal-oxide ceramics normally have a ratio of 2 metal atoms to every 3 oxygen atoms.
physical vapor deposition A fabrication technique for depositing a thin film upon a substrate. A conventional physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique is sputtering. In the sputtering method, materials are bombarded with an ionized inert gas, such as argon, and are deposited onto the substrate..
Pinning See Flux Pinning
PIT Powder in tube (conductor)
plasma In physics and chemistry, plasma is typically an ionized gas, and is usually considered to be a distinct phase of matter in contrast to solids, liquids, and gases because of its unique properties.
PLD See Pulsed laser deposition
Pulsed Laser Deposition An efficient method to produce thin films by utilizing a technique called laser ablation.
Pulse Tube Cryocooler A device which produces low temperatures. It is a closed system that uses an oscillating pressure at one end to generate an oscillating gas flow in the rest of the system. This gas flow can carry heat away from a low temperature point if the conditions are right. The prime advantage of Pulse Tube cryocoolers over Stirling cryocoolers is that they have no moving parts in the low temperature region.
p-YSZ Polycrystalline yttrium-stabilized zirconia
QMG Quench melt growth
Qubit Quantum bit. A unit of data stored physically in a quantum system.
quatratran quasiparticle trapping transistor - see supercurrent transistor
RABiTS Rolling assisted biaxially textured substrates. Method for creating textured metal substrate for 2G wires by adding a buffer layer between the nickel substrate and YBCO, in order to prevent the texture of the YBCO from being destroyed during processing under oxidizing atmospheres.
RE Rare earth element (such as La, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, etc.). Often added to superconductors to improve their flux pinning abilities.
RE-123 oxides 123 compound formed with a rare earth instead of yttrium. See YBCO.
Reactive sputtering A technique where a deposited film is formed by chemical reaction between the target material and a gas which is introduced into the vacuum chamber. Oxide and nitride films are often fabricated using reactive sputtering. The composition of the film can be controlled by varying the relative pressures of the inert and reactive gases. See thin film deposition.
Reel-to-reel Continuous wire manufacturing. (Can theoretically handle any length wire.)
rf Radio frequency
rms Root mean square
RFSQ Rapid Single Flux Quantum superconducting circuit.
SBCO Sm-Ba-Cu-O compound.
SBIR Small business innovative research program (From the US government.)
Self-epitaxial A material that grows on itself with the same crystal structure.
Self-field The self field is the magnetic field that is induced when there is finite current flowing in a wire. In the case of critical current measurements, the self field is the magnetic field that is induced in a straight piece of wire that is being measured.
SFCL Superconducting Fault Current Limiter,
SFQ Single flux quantum
Slot-die coating A method of applying a liquid material to a substrate. In this process, liquid is forced out from a reservoir through a slot by pressure and transferred to a moving web.
SMES Superconducting magnetic energy storage
sol-gel A colloidal suspension that can be gelled to form a solid. The resulting porous gel then is chemically purified and fired at high temperatures into high purity oxide materials. The gel can be modified with a number of dopants to produce unique properties in the resultant glass unattainable by other means. It can be used in ceramics manufacturing processes, as an investment casting material, or as a means of producing very thin films of metal oxides for various purposes.
Spin coating A procedure used to apply uniform thin films to flat substrates. An excess amount of solvent is placed on a substrate, which is then rotated at high speed in order to spread the fluid. Rotation is continued until the desired thickness of the film is achieved. The applied solvent is usually volatile, and evaporates as well as pouring off the edge of the substrate.
spray pyrolysis Liquid droplets containing precursors are injected into a thermal reactor. The solvent evaporates and the precursors react to form the product.
SPTL Superconducting power transmission line
Sputtering A process whereby atoms in a solid target material are ejected into the gas phase due to bombardment of the material by energetic ions. It is commonly used for thin-film deposition and analytical techniques.
SQUID Superconducting quantum interference device. A sensitive magnetic instrument usually used for medical diagnostics.
Substrate The surface or base layer on which a superconducting thin film is grown.
Superconductivity A state where a material exhibits no electrical resistance and excludes the inner magnetic field.
Superconductor An element, inter-metallic alloy, or compound that will conduct electricity without resistance below a certain temperature. Once set in motion, current will flow forever in a closed loop of superconducting material. This applies only to direct current (DC) electricity and to finite amounts of current. All known superconductors are solids. superconductor can be classified into Type 1 and Type 2, and can be categorized further by their dimensionality. Most are 3-D, but some compounds, like surface-doped NaWO3 and some organic superconductors are 2-D. Li2CuO2 and single-walled carbon nano-tubes have shown rare 1-D superconductivity. In addition to repelling magnetic fields, enhanced thermal conductivity, higher optical reflectivity and reduced surface friction are also properties of superconductors. (from superconductors.org)
Superconductor A material capable of displaying superconductivity.
Superconductor/PM Superconductor/permanent magnet
SuperconductorFCL Superconductive fault current limiter
supercurrent transistor The superconducting transistor, or quatratran, is made of very thin layers of the superconductor niobium, insulation, and aluminum, which is a non-superconducting metal. When a voltage is applied to one of the superconducting layers, the increase in energy causes electrons from the aluminum layer to stream into a superconducting layer, causing a gain, or change in current, 70 times larger than the amount of current applied.
synchronous condenser Fundamentally an AC synchronous motor that is not attached to any driven equipment. Its field is controlled by a voltage regulator to either generate or absorb reactive power as needed by the system. It operates at full leading power factor and puts VARs onto the network as required to support a system’s voltage or to maintain the system power factor at a specified level. The condenser’s installation and operation are identical to large electric motors.