Study of Compositional and Artificial Pinning Effects on Superconductivity of Pulsed-Laser Deposited Gd-123 Films for Coated Conductor Applications

Abstract

Critical temperature (Tc), critical current density (Jc) and flux pinning characteristics of superconducting films are crucially influenced by their chemical composition. We studied the effect of small composition variations on superconductivity of GdBa2Cu3O7-x (Gd-123) films grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Several pathways to control the composition of Gd-123 films were studied: variation of clearance between edge of laser plume and substrate surface, utilization of off-stoichiometric target compositions and addition of GdZrO3. Positive effect of Ba-deficiency on superconductivity of Gd-123 films was shown. Comparative study of Gd-123 and Y-123 films on CeO2 capped Gd2Zr2O7 (GZO) buffered Hastelloy tapes confirmed the advantage of Gd-based compositions for application in magnetic fields and their high potential for fabrication of long-length coated conductors.