Science / Medicine : Process Makes Wire From Ceramic Material

A novel technique for making flexible wires of high current-carrying capacity from the new “high temperature” superconductors was announced last week by researchers at Stanford University. The new superconductors, which carry electricity with no losses due to resistance, are ceramics that are normally quite brittle and difficult to work with. The new technique may make it easier to fabricate useful devices, experts said.

The Stanford researchers used conventional techniques to make a rod of the superconducting ceramic, then melted one end of the rod with a high-powered laser. A seed crystal of the ceramic was dipped into the molten material and slowly withdrawn.

As the seed crystal was withdrawn, the molten ceramic congealed around it to form a long crystalline fiber that carried high currents. The researchers have so far made only a 5-inch-long fiber with the thickness of a fishing line, but they say there are no limits to the length of fiber that can be prepared.