Growth of Biaxially Oriented Conductive ITO Buffer Layers on Textured Ni Tapes for YBCO Coated Conductors

Abstract

We investigated the effect of the Ar+ ion beam irradiation on removing NiO on the {100} (001) textured Ni tape surface, and the validity of the ITO as a conductive buffer layer. Excellent biaxial crystal orientations of the CeO2, YSZ and YBCO were achieved in the YBCO/YSZ/CeO2 prepared on the {100}(001) textured Ni tape, by irradiating the surface of the Ni tape before starting the deposition. The Jc of the YBCO/YSZ/CeO2/Ni tape exceeded 2 MA/cm2 at 77 K. We also prepared the biaxially oriented YBCO on the ITO buffered Ni tape. We confirmed that ITO did not react with YBCO, and that ITO aligned biaxially on the {100} (001) textured Ni tape.