Fabrication and Characterization of YBCO Coated Conductors by Inclined Substrate Deposition

Abstract

Inclined substrate deposition (ISD) is an effective method for rapid fabrication of high‐quality template layers for YBCO‐coated conductors. We have deposited biaxially textured ISD‐MgO films on flexible metallic tapes in a reel‐to‐reel system by electron‐beam evaporation at rapid deposition rates, 2–10 nm⋅s−1. Strontium ruthenium oxide (SRO) buffer and YBCO films were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Pole figure analysis of a meter‐long ISD‐MgO tape was carried out by X‐ray diffraction using a Bruker’s D8 DISCOVER equipped with GADDS (general area detection diffraction system). The c‐axis of the ISD‐MgO film was tilted away from substrate normal. A full‐width at half maximum (FWHM) of ≈10° was observed from the φ‐scan of the MgO (002) diffraction measured on samples deposited with 35° inclination angle. Surface morphology measured by atomic force microscopy revealed a roof‐tile shaped structure for the ISD‐MgO films. Through the use of the SRO buffer, biaxial alignment in the YBCO film deposited on the ISD‐MgO template was improved. The φ‐scan FWHM was 5.8° for the YBCO (005) diffraction. We have measured the critical transition temperature Tc = 91 K and transport critical current density Jc >1.6×106 A⋅cm−2 at 77 K in self‐field on a SRO‐buffered YBCO film grown with ISD‐MgO architecture.