Research and development of MgB₂ materials for practical applications

Abstract

Since the discovery of the superconductivity of MgB₂ in 2001, extensive efforts at fundamental and/or engineering studies on MgB₂ have been made worldwide. Superconducting properties, such as upper critical field and critical current density, have been improved. Currently, long MgB₂ wires exceeding 1 km length can be manufactured, and the development of various application systems using MgB₂ wires is ongoing. For example, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system using MgB₂ magnets was constructed and images of human brain were successfully acquired in late 2006. In this review, an overview of the research on MgB₂ wires from both materials science and application development aspects is presented.