High speed production of YBCO precursor films by advanced TFA-MOD process

Abstract

YBa 2Cu 3O 7− y (YBCO) long tapes derived from the metal-organic deposition (MOD) method using the starting solution containing trifluoroacetate (TFA) have been developed with high critical currents ( I c ) over 200 A/cm-width. However, high speed production of YBCO films is simultaneously necessary to satisfy the requirements of electric power device applications in terms of cost and the amounts of the tapes. In this work, we developed a new TFA-MOD starting solution using F-free salt of Y, TFA salt of Ba and Cu-Octylate for application to the coating/calcination process and discussed several issues by using the Multi-turn (MT) Reel-to-Reel (RTR) system calcination furnace for the purpose of high throughput without degradation of the properties. The coating system was improved for uniform deposition qualities in both longitudinal and transversal directions. YBCO films using the new starting solution at the traveling rate of 10 m/h in coating/calcination by the MT-RTR calcination furnace showed the values of the critical current density of 1.6 MA/cm 2 as thick as 1.5 μm at 77 K under the self fields after firing at the high heating rate in the crystallization.