Research on CeO 2 cap layer for YBCO-coated conductor

Abstract

Two groups of coated conductor samples with different thicknesses of CeO2 cap layers deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) under the same conditions have been studied. Of them, one group is of CeO2 films, which are deposited on stainless steel (SS) tapes coated by IBAD-YSZ (IBAD-YSZ/SS), and the other group is of CeO2/YSZ/Y2O3 multilayers, which are deposited on NiW substrates by PLD for the fabrication of YBCO-coated conductor through the RABiTS approach. YBCO film is then deposited on the tops of both types of buffer layers by PLD. The effects of the thickness of the CeO2 film on the texture of the CeO2 film and the critical current density (Jc) of the YBCO film are analysed. For the case of CeO2 film on IBAD-YSZ/SS, there appears a self-epitaxy effect with increasing thickness of the CeO2 film. For CeO2/YSZ/Y2O3/NiW, in which the buffer layers are deposited by PLD, there occurs no self-epitaxy effect, and the optimal thickness of CeO2 is about 50 nm. The surface morphologies of the two groups of samples are examined by SEM.