Faculty Profile

E-mail address: larbalestier@asc.magnet.fsu.edu
209 Shaw Building
(850)645-7483

David C. Larbalestier is the Francis Eppes Professor of Superconducting Materials in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Applied Superconductivity Center, and Chief Materials Scientist in the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. His interests are centered on the manufacture, understanding and application of superconducting materials, both the metallic low temperature superconductors like Nb-Ti and Nb₃Sn and the newer high temperature superconductors like MgB₂, Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_x, (Bi,Pb)₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃O_x and YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x. High field superconductors are inherent nanomaterials, because the range of coherence of the superconducting wave function is only 1 to 5 nanometers. Thus control of nano/microstructure is key to any successful superconductor development. Strong interactions with the main users of superconducting materials are a major part of our effort and the desire of the NHMFL to developing new generations of very high field superconducting magnets were a key factor in attracting our group to FSU in 2006.

David Larbalestier received his BS and PhD degrees in Physical Metallurgy from Imperial Collegeof the Universityof London in 1965 and 1970. He spent 2 years in Switzerland at the Battelle institute, then returned to the UK to the Rutherford Laboratory, the British High Energy Physics Laboratory, coming to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976, where he was Director of the Applied Superconductivity Center, LV Shubnikov Professor and David Grainger Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics.

Professor Larbalestier is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and has received 2 prizes of the Instituteof Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Institute of Physics (UK). With his colleagues, he has published almost 300 reviewed papers and given more than 100 invited talks and seminars. His group has graduated more than 50 MS, PhD and postdoctoral scientists and provided many research opportunities for undergraduates too. He is looking forward enthusiastically to building a new program in Mechanical Engineering.

Some Recent Publications:

D. C. Larbalestier, L. D. Cooley, M. O. Rikel, A. A. Polyanskii, J. Jiang, S. Patnaik, X. Y. Cai, D. M. Feldmann, A. Gurevich, A. A. Squitieri, M. T. Naus, C. B. Eom, E. E. Hellstrom, R. J. Cava, and K. A. Regan, "Strongly Linked Current Flow in Polycrystalline Forms of the Superconductor MgB₂," Nature, 410: 186-189, (2001).

C.B. Eom, M.K. Lee, J.H. Choi, L. J. Belenky, X. Song, L.D. Cooley, M.T. Naus, S. Patnaik, J. Jiang, M. Rikel, A. Polyanskii, A. Gurevich, X.Y. Cai, S.D. Bu, S.E. Babcock, E.E. Hellstrom, and D.C. Larbalestier, “Very High Critical Current Density and Enhanced Irreversibility Field in Magnesium Diboride Films”, Nature 411: 558-560, (2001).

A.A. Polyanskii, A. Gurevich, J. Jiang, D.C. Larbalestier, S.L. Bud'ko, D.K. Finnemore, G. Lapertot , P.C. Canfield, “Magneto-optical studies of the uniform critical state in bulk MgB₂”, Superconductor Science and Technology 14, 811-815, (2001).

D. Larbalestier, A. Gurevich, M. Feldmann and A. Polyanskii, “High Transition Temperature Superconducting Materials For Electric Power Applications”, Nature 414, 368-377, (2001).

V. Braccini, A. Gurevich, J.E. Giencke, M.C. Jewell, C.B. Eom, D.C. Larbalestier, A. Pogrebnyakov, Y. Cui, B. T. Liu, Y. F.Hu, J. M. Redwing, Qi Li, X.X. Xi, R.K. Singh, R. Gandikota, J. Kim, B. Wilkens, N. Newman, J. Rowell, B. Moeckly, V. Ferrando, C. Tarantini, D. Marré, M. Putti, C. Ferdeghini, R. Vaglio, E. Haanappel, “High-field superconductivity in alloyed MgB₂ thin films”, Phys. Rev. B 71, 012504, (2005).

X. Song, G. Daniels, D.M. Feldmann, A. Gurevich, and D.C. Larbalestier, "Electromagnetic, Atomic-Structure and Chemistry Changes Induced by Ca-doping of Low Angle YBCO Grain Boundaries," Nature Materials, 4, 470-475, (2005).

A. Godeke, M.C. Jewell, C.M. Fischer, A.A. Squitieri, P.J. Lee, and D.C. Larbalestier, "The Upper Critical Field of Filamentary Nb₃Sn Conductors," Journal of Applied Physics, 97, 093909 1-12, (2005).

T.G. Holesinger, P.N. Arendt, R. Feenstra, A.A. Gapud, E.D. Specht, D. M. Feldmann and D.C. Larbalestier, “Liquid Mediated Growth and the Bi-modal Microstructure of YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x Films Made by the ex situ Conversion of PVD-BaF₂ Precursors,” J. Materials Research 20, 1216-1233, (2005).

D.M. Feldmann, D.C. Larbalestier, T. Holesinger, R. Feenstra, A.A. Gapud, E.D. Specht. “Evidence for extensive grain boundary meander and overgrowth of substrate grain boundaries in high critical current density ex situ YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x coated conductors.” J. Mater. Research, 20, 2012-2020, (2005).

C.D. Hawes, P.J. Lee and D.C. Larbalestier, “Measurements of the Microstructural, Microchemical and Transition Temperature Gradients of A15 Layers in High Performance Nb₃Sn Powder-in-Tube Superconducting Strand,” Superconductor Science and Technology 19, S27-S37, (2006).

P.J. Lee, A.A. Polyanskii, A. Gurevich, A.A. Squitieri, D.C. Larbalestier, P.C. Bauer, C. Boffo, and H.T. Edwards, “Grain Boundary Flux Penetration and Resistivity in Large Grain Niobium Sheet,” Physica C 441, 126-129 (2006).

D.M. Feldmann, T.G. Holesinger, C. Cantoni, R. Feenstra, N.A. Nelson, D.C. Larbalestier, D.T. Verebelyi, X. Li, M. Rupich, “Comparative study of grain orientations and grain boundary networks for YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x films deposited by metalorganic and pulsed laser deposition on biaxially textured Ni W substrates,” J. of Materials Research, 21, 923-934 (2006).

X. Song, Z. Chen, S.I. Kim, D.M. Feldmann, D.C. Larbalestier, J. Reeves, Y. Xie, V. Selvamanickam, “Evidence for Strong Flux-Pinning by Small, Dense Nanoprecipitates in a Sm-Doped YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x Coated Conductor,” Applied Physics Letters, 88, 212508 (2006).

J. Clarke and D.C. Larbalestier, “Wired for the Future”, Nature Physics, 2, 794-796 (2006)
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