Elastic properties of Cu-6wt\%Ag alloy wires for pulsed magnets investigated by ultrasonic techniques

Abstract

Conductor materials with good mechanical performance as well as high electrical- and thermal-conductivities are particularly important to break through the current bottle-neck limit ($\sim 100$ T) of pulsed magnets. Here we perform systematic studies on the elastic properties of the Cu-6wt\%Ag alloy wires, a promising candidate material for the new-generation pulsed magnets, by employing two independent ultrasonic techniques - resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) and ultrasound pulse-echo experiments. Our RUS measurements manifest that the elastic properties of the Cu-6wt\%Ag alloy wires can be improved by an electroplastic drawing procedure as compared with the conventional cold drawing. We also take this chance to test the availability of our newly-built ultrasound pulse-echo facility at Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center (WHMFC, China), and the results suggest that the elastic performance of the electroplastically-drawn Cu-6wt\%Ag alloy wire remains excellent without anomalous softening under extreme conditions, e.g., ultra-high magnetic field up to 50 T, nitrogen / helium cryogenic liquids.