The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, funded by the National Science Foundation and other US federal Agencies, has in recent years built a wide range of magnetic fields, DC 25 to 35 Tesla, short pulse 50 - 60 Tesla, and quasi-continuous 60 Tesla. Future plans are to push the frontiers to 45 Tesla DC and 70 to 100 Tesla pulse. This user facility, is open for national and international users, and creates an excellent tool for materials research (metals, semiconductors, superconductors, biological systems ..., etc). Here we present results of a systematic study of the upper critical field of a novel superconducting material which is considered a promising candidate for the search for superconductivity beyond H{sub c2} as proposed by several new theories. These theories predict that superconductors with low carrier density can reenter the superconducting phase beyond the conventional upper critical field H{sub c2}. This negates the conventional thinking that superconductivity and magnetic fields are antagonistic.

This final report comprises a brief synopsis of the following original papers published in refereed journals. For further details, these papers themselves should be consulted. (1) ``Fast-neutron radiation effects in a silica-core optical fiber studied by a CCD-camera spectrometer,`` D.L. Griscom, M.E. Gingerich, E.J. Friebele, M. Putnam, and W. Unruh, Appl. Optics 33, 1022-1028 (1994). (2) ``Radiation hardening of pure-silica-core optical fibers by ultra-high-dose {gamma}-ray pre-irradiation,`` D.L. Griscom, J. Appl. Phys. 77, 5008-5013 (1995). (3) ``{gamma}-radiation resistance of aluminum-coated all-silica optical fibers fabricated using different types of silica in the core,`` D.L. Griscom, K.M. Goland, A.L. Tomashuk, D.V.; Pavlov, and Yu.A. Tarabrin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 69, 322-324 (1996). (4) ``{gamma} and fission-reactor radiation effects on the visible-range transparency of aluminum-jacketed, all-silica optical fibers,`` D.L. Griscom, J. Appl. Phys. 80, 2142-2155 (1996). (5) ``Visible/infra-red absorption study in fiber geometry of metastable defect states in high-purity fused silicas,`` D.L. Griscom, Proc. 13th Int`l Conf. on Defects in Insulating Materials, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, July 1996. (6) ``Influence of the cladding thickness on the evolution of the NBOHC band in optical fibers exposed to gamma radiations,`` O. Deparis, D.L. Griscom, P. Megret, M. Decreton, and M. Blondel, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 216, 124-128 …