Progress towards nanostructured SmBCO film for controlling pinning properties

Abstract

We have studied the artificial pinning center (APC) techniques in Sm1+xBa2-xCu3Oy (SmBCO) films deposited on single crystalline substrates. As a result, using the Low Temperature Growth (LTG)-PLD technique, Jc of 0.28 MA/cm2 at 77 K, B=5 T (B // c) was obtained on 700 nm thick SmBCO films grown on 50 nm thick SmBCO-seed bufferd MgO substrate. Following the successful demonstration of the growth of SmBCO films on single crystalline substrate, the LTG technique was also extended to coated conductor on metal substrates. With the objectives of applying the superconducting magnetic application that operate at liquid nitrogen temperature, we report the Jc in magnetic field and the microstructure of SmBCO coated conductor. PLD-SmBCO with a Jc of over 0.1 MA/cm2 at 5 T (B // c, 77K) were grown on IBAD-YSZ/CeO2 tape, which is higher than YBCO/IBAD. In addition, the Jc values of the SmBCO coated conductor grown with LTG technique measuring 0.23 MA/cm2 for 5 T of B // c at 77 K are comparable to that of NbTi for 5 T at 4.2 K. From the magnetic field angular dependences of Jc, the anisotropy of the SmBCO film/IBAD tape is small. This performance in SmBCO coated conductor on metal substrate is comparable to the best results of SmBCO films on MgO single crystalline substrates.