Hydrostatic Pressure Effect on the Critical Current Density of First-Generation Bi-2223 Superconducting Wire

A method to transport up to 180 A of current into the sample space of a pressure cell without causing thermal instabilities at 77 K was developed in order to study the critical current Ic of samples of first-generation Bi-2223 superconducting wire at different hydrostatic pressures. Ic was found to linearly decrease with increasing application of external pressure and was found to be irreversible upon release of pressure. The n-value of the voltage-current curves at different pressure was also found to systematically decrease. The decrease in Ic and the irreversibility effect is attributed to the deformation of the filamentary walls of the wire.