The onset of full coupling in multi-filament superconducting tapes exposed to an alternating external magnetic field

At high amplitudes and frequencies of the external magnetic field, the superconducting filaments in a composite conductor are fully coupled. This causes a high magnetisation loss. Methods to decouple the filaments are well known for the low-T-c superconductors and have recently been applied also to high-T-c composites. In this paper, expressions are derived for the magnetic-field amplitude and frequency where full coupling sets in, as well as for the twist length required for decoupling the filaments in a general rectangular composite. A comparison is made with other expressions found in the literature. The filaments in a typical Bi-2223/Ag tape in parallel magnetic fields are decoupled just by twisting. In perpendicular fields a high transverse resistivity is required to decouple the filaments and decrease the magnetisation loss. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.