YBCO-coated conductors fabricated by inclined substrate deposition technique

Abstract

Inclined substrate deposition (ISD) is an attractive technique for rapid production ofhigh-quality template layers for YBCO-coated conductors. We have grown biaxially texturedmagnesium oxide (MgO) films on metallic substrates by ISD at rapid deposition rates,20–100 Å s−1. Scanning electron microscopy of the ISD MgO films showed columnargrain structures with a roof-tile-shaped surface. X-ray diffraction pole figureanalysis revealed that the ISD MgO film is biaxially aligned with thec-axis tilted from its substrate normal. Tilt angles of and were measured on ISD MgO films deposited at55° and 35° inclination angles, respectively. A full width at half maximum (FWHM) of was observed in the ϕ-scan for short-length ISD MgO films. A 1 m long tape of ISD MgO grown on ametallic substrate was fabricated by a reel-to-reel method. This tape has an averageϕ-scan FWHM of16.1° with a standarddeviation of 2.6°. YBCO films were grown on strontium ruthenium oxide (SRO)-buffered ISD MgOsubstrates by pulsed laser deposition. A superconducting critical transition temperatureTc = 91 K and criticalcurrent density Jc = 1.1 × 106 A cm−2 were measured at 77 K in self-field for a sample that is0.3 µm thick, 2.9 mm wide, and 1.0 cm long.