  Copper sheath is the first choice for manufacturing high-Tc superconducting
wires and tapes because of its high electrical and thermal conductivities, low
cost and good mechanical properties. However, Cu can easily react with
superconducting cores, such as BSCCO, MgB2 and pnictides, during
high-temperature sintering process and therefore drastically decrease the
transport Jc. Here, we report the fabrication of Cu-sheathed Sr1-xKxFe2As2
tapes with superior Jc performance using a simple hot pressing method that is
capable of eliminating the lengthy high-temperature sintering required by
conventional process. We obtained high-quality Sr1-xKxFe2As2 tapes with
processing at 800oC for 30 minutes and measured high Tc and sharp transition.
This rapid fabrication method can effectively thwart the diffusion of Cu into
polycrystalline Sr-122 core. As a consequence, we achieved high transport Jc of
3.1x10^4 A/cm^2 in 10 T and 2.7x10^4 A/cm^2 in 14 T at 4.2 K. The in-field Jc
performance is by far the highest reported for Cu-sheathed high-Tc conductors.
Our results demonstrate the potential of Cu sheath for practical application of
pnictide wires and tapes.
