Spatial distribution of critical current and supercurrent density in individual filaments extracted from Ag-sheathed Bi-2223 tapes

Abstract The critical current density Jc distributions along individual filaments of Bi-2223/Ag tapes are studied by low-temperature scanning laser microscopy. The filaments are extracted from the tapes by cutting them with a high-power UV laser. A relation between the supercurrent density distribution along cross section and the response amplitude is determined. The spatial resolution of this imaging method for bulk filaments is about few micrometers.