The MARS project accepted by the ANR

The MARS project, led by Morgan Rusinowicz, concerning “Small-scale mechanical analysis of REBCO-coated superconductors at cryogenic temperatures” has just been accepted by the ANR. High-temperature superconductors (HTS) based on mixed oxides of barium, copper, and rare earths (REBCO) are ultra-high-performance materials capable of addressing societal and environmental challenges. In the form of magnets, they produce very high magnetic fields at low temperature (> 20 T at ~ -269°C) and more moderate fields at temperatures compatible with industrial liquid nitrogen (< 2 T at ~ -196°C), enabling their integration into various applications: nuclear fusion, electric motors, medical imaging, power transmission cables, large-scale instruments, among others. The MARS project aims to characterize the mechanical behavior of individual layers of HTS-REBCO at the scale of their thickness, their interfaces, and at cryogenic temperatures through in situ SEM micromechanical testing (nanoindentation, micropillar compression, microbeam bending, etc.). The local mechanical properties obtained will be correlated with the microstructure and functional performance, then integrated into multi-scale models in order to obtain the best possible description of the macroscopic structural behavior of the tape from its microscopic constituents. Thus, the MARS project will enable the identification, quantification, and mitigation of failure mechanisms in HTS-REBCO.

Congratulations!