Diffusion Controlled Growth of A15-Based Nb3Sn and V3Ga Intermetallic Compounds

The A15-based Nb3Sn and V3Ga superconducting compounds are an integral part of synchrotrons and magnetic fusion reactor technology, especially where a magnetic field higher than 10 T is required, which lies beyond the limit of conventional Nb-Ti superconductors (~8 T). These brittle intermetallic compounds are difficult to manufacture in the form of wires, required for the application purpose, using the traditional wire-drawing process. Hence, bronze technique is adopted to fabricate such filamentary wires. This is based on the solid-state diffusion where A3B compound (A=Nb or V, B=Sn or Ga) forms during the interaction of Cu(B) and A. The operation of pure superconducting wires gets restricted to the field of 12 T, however, the ever-increasing demands for an improved efficiency have promoted the development of these A15 wires with the addition of alloying elements such as Ti and Zr. Many important physical and mechanical properties of such wires depend on the growth behaviour of these compounds. Therefore, understanding the growth of such compounds necessitates an in-depth analysis on diffusion behaviour of various elements in both bronze-based solid solutions as well as A15-intermetallics. Estimation of diffusion parameters makes use of the most commonly used diffusion couple technique. There are mainly three methods available for the estimation of the interdiffusion coefficients, proposed by Matano-Boltzmann (MB), Den Broeder (dB), same as Sauer-Freise (SF) and Wagner. Among these three, MB treatment is known to be the least accurate method, especially when there is a deviation of molar volume in a system from the ideality. At the same time molar volume might affect the estimation process differently for dB and Wagner’s approach. MB method is still being used neglecting the actual molar volume variation. On the other hand, the implementation of dB or Wagner’s approach for the estimation remains to be random. For the first time, we have critically examined the role of molar volume on estimated diffusion parameters and indicated the more accurate approach. Similar analysis for the estimation of the intrinsic diffusion coefficient is conducted considering Heumann and van Loo’s methods. Furthermore, the discussion is extended to the estimations of various diffusion parameters considering the measured composition profile in the V-Ga system. A detailed diffusion study has been conducted on Cu(Ga) and Cu(Sn) solid solutions to examine the role of the vacancy wind effect on interdiffusion. The interdiffusion, intrinsic and impurity diffusion coefficients are determined to facilitate the discussion. It is found that Ga and Sn are the faster diffusing species in the respective systems. The trend of the interdiffusion coefficients is explained with the help of the driving force. Following that, the tracer diffusion coefficients of the species are calculated with and without consideration of the vacancy wind effect. We found that the role of the vacancy wind is negligible on the minor element in a dilute solid solution,…