Preparation of coated conductor architectures on Ni composite tapes

An epitaxial Y2O3/YSZ/CeO2 buffer architecture has been prepared using pulsed laser deposition on cube texture Ni-3at.% W/Ni-10at.% Cr-1.5at.% Al and Ni-5at.% W/Ni-10at.% W composite tapes. The buffer layer growth was studied in detail and revealed good texture transfer throughout the structure, similar to standard Ni-5at.% W substrates. YBCO layers were successfully deposited on the buffered tapes and compared to films grown on SrTiO3 single crystals. A superconducting transition temperature of about 90K with a small transition width was observed on all metal substrates. A critical current density Jc of about 1MAcm -2 was measured at 77K in a self-field. It was found that J c is mainly limited by the grain boundary network in magnetic fields below 4T, whereas similar values as on SrTiO3 single crystals were measured at higher fields. © IOP Publishing Ltd.