Missions

The candidate will develop and test techniques for making internal and external junctions between pancake coils wound with second-generation high-temperature superconductor tapes.

Activités

- Bibliography
- Preparation / manufacture of internal and external junctions.
- Electrical characterization of junctions close to real operating conditions, at low temperature (conduction cooling or helium bath) / under magnetic field / under mechanical stress.
- Development of a test bench / measurement protocol.
- Evaluation of losses / improvement of cooling.
- Modeling.
- Analysis of results and interpretation.
- Formulation of a manufacturing protocol for reproducible, very low-dissipative junctions for pancake coils assembly, including verification of conformity (maximum resistance) during production.
- Contribution to scientific publications.
- Participation in international conferences.

Compétences

- PhD in Materials Science, Experimental Physics.
- Specific experience in applied superconductivity, low-temperature techniques and magnetic field measurements.
- Instrumentation skills: proficiency in the use of measuring equipment and techniques, sensors and/or associated electronics, particularly for measuring magnetic fields, temperature and electrical quantities.
- Control of measuring equipment (e.g. Labview).
- Signal processing and data analysis (e.g. Origin, Matlab).
- Numerical simulation (e.g. Comsol).
- Good written and oral communication skills in English are required.

Soft skills :
- We are looking for a highly motivated, independent collaborator.
- Ability and willingness to work as part of a team, good interpersonal skills, ability to listen and give advice.
- Autonomy and initiative, ability to adapt.
- Good work organization, planning and priority management skills.

Contexte de travail

The candidate will be based at the Grenoble site of the LNCMI, a CNRS unit employing 116 staff and located at two sites, Grenoble (continuous magnetic fields, 65 staff) and Toulouse (pulsed magnetic fields, 51 staff). The LNCMI develops and makes available very intense magnetic fields for fundamental and applied research in various scientific fields, and welcomes researchers from all over the world.

The increasing cost of energy required to operate high-field resistive magnets is driving the interest in high-temperature superconductors (HTS) for magnetic field generation. The specific properties of REBCO SHT tapes, capable of carrying high electric currents under very high magnetic field (> 20 T) at low temperatures (below 20 K), offer an exceptional opportunity to go beyond 25 T, the limit of conventional low-temperature superconductors (LTS).

Together with partners from the Neel Institut and CEA Saclay, the LNCMI is developing winding technologies that enable these HTS tapes to be used to make magnets. This has led to the manufacture of an HTS insert operating at 4.2 K, made from a stack of pancake coils, which has achieved 32.5 T (useful internal diameter 38 mm) with a background field of 18 T. For its part, Neel Institut has produced a magnet with a larger diameter (300 mm), delivering up to 13 T. While the feasibility of the technology has been demonstrated, a number of challenges remain, such as optimizing the cooling of these very compact windings, and making the connections between pancakes. These connections have to be easy to make, reproducible, with extremely low dissipation (less than a hundred mW).

The candidate will join the "high Tc superconductors" team, comprising 2 research engineers. This team collaborates closely with all the other technical teams at LNCMI, in particular the "scientific instrumentation" team and the "resistive magnet" team, as well as with numerous academic and industrial partners.

Our work is carried out in an innovative, international environment.

Contraintes et risques

The LNCMI's functioning means that magnetic field experiments can be carried out outside normal working hours (compensated by rest period).

Informations complémentaires

The position is granted for 12 months in the frame of the Archymed project funded by the DGA. The salary will be based on CNRS grids and experience.

Contact person :
Xavier Chaud (Xavier.chaud@lncmi.cnrs.fr)


Informations:
Xavier Chaud (Xavier.chaud@lncmi.cnrs.fr)