Space applications of superconductivity: Low frequency superconducting sensors

✍ Scribed by J.E. Zimmerman

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1015 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-2275
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-2275(80)90062-4

✦ Synopsis

This is the third of a seven part series on the potential applications of superconductivity in space. Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) are used in highlysensitive magnetometers and gradiometers. They are superior to all other magnetic sensors in sensitivity, frequency response, range, and linearity. They are potentially useful for measuring low-level magnetic field variations in space, such as fluctuations in the solar wind and small-or large-scale spacial anomalies of planetary fields. They are useful also as galvanometers and amplifiers, particularly for applications requiring extreme voltage sensitivity such as, for example, low-impedance bolometer amplifiers. In connection with low-frequency sensors, superconductivity provides some adjunct devices, namely perfect magnetic shields and flux transformers, the latter being used for a number of purposes including construction of fairly elaborate gradiometer pickup-loop arrays.