YBCO film growth on CeO2-buffered YSZ substrate by the full-solution method

Abstract

The full-solution method has been developed as a low-cost process for makingYBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) coated conductors. In this study, highly biaxially texturedCeO2 buffer layers have been fabricated on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) single-crystalsubstrates by the sol–gel method using inorganic cerium nitrate as the starting precursormaterial. High-quality superconducting YBCO film has also been fabricated onCeO2-buffered YSZ substrate by the trifluoroacetate metal–organicdeposition (TFA-MOD) method. For YBCO superconducting film, only(00l) diffraction peaks can be detected by x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Also from theXRD analysis, the YBCO films show sharp in-plane and out-of-plane texturefor all samples, which indicates that the YBCO film is epitaxially grown on theCeO2 buffer layer. From scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, the YBCOfilm shows a uniform surface structure. A critical transition temperature,Tc 0, of 91 K and a critical current density of3 MA cm−2 (77 K, self-field)were obtained for a 0.2 µm thick YBCO film on CeO2-buffered YSZ substrate.