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Staff profile

Overview

Charles Haddon

PGR Student

Affiliations
Affiliation
PGR Student in the Department of Physics

Biography

I am currently undertaking a PhD as part of the Fusion CDT on computational modelling of superconducting materials, particularly the effects of radiation damage on the critical parameters of high-field magnets for fusion applications. In 2020 I was awarded an MSci in Theoretical Physics from the University of Birmingham.

References

  1. Sadovskyy, Koshelev & Phillips et al. (2015) Stable large-scale solver for Ginzburg–Landau equations for superconductors, Journal of Computational Physics.

  2. Sadovskyy, Jia & Leroux et al. (2016) Toward Superconducting Critical Current by Design, Advanced Materials.

  3. Weber (2011) Radiation effects on superconducting fusion magnet components, World Scientific Publishing Co..

Research

Through my research I aim to quantify the critical current densities and critical fields of high-field superconductors using 3D simulations based on time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau theory [1]. These properties are described precisely by empirical laws and understood qualitatively through microscopic models but quantative agreement between the models and experimental data is yet to be achieved [2].

The simulated microstructure can be modified to incorporate defects such as those produced by neutron irradiation. The properties of the superconducting magnets which are used in magnetic confinement fusion reactors are expected to degrade over time due to neutron irradiation [3] and I aim to use simulations to help to understand and mitigate these effects. Since in situ neutron irradiation experiments are notoriously difficult to conduct, and because the superconducting magnets will be responsible for a large fraction of the cost of the next generation of tokamaks, a detailed microscopic understanding of superconductors under neutron irradiation would be useful.