Fabrication of YBCO coated conductors using magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Epitaxial YBa 2Cu 3O 7−x (YBCO) superconducting films have been obtained on the rolling assisted biaxially textured Ni substrates (RABitS). To prevent the interaction between YBCO and metallic substrate CeO 2 and YSZ films were employed as the diffusion buffers. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the Φ-scan of CeO 2 (220) is 11° whereas that of YSZ (220) is 15°, showing a good in-plane orientation. On such YSZ/CeO 2 buffered Ni substrates YBCO films were epitaxially grown by using cylinder target in a dc magnetron sputtering system. At 77 K a transport critical current density J ct as high as 6×10 5 A/cm 2 was obtained. The microstructure and crystallinity of these films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Auger electron spectrum (AES), and x-ray diffraction (XRD).