Pulsed laser deposition method-CeO2 buffer layer for YBCO coated conductor

CeO2 buffer layers were deposited on IBAD-Gd2Zr2O7 tapes by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method and were investigated especially in terms of the thickness dependence on the crystal grain alignment. The film thickness was varied from 10 to 1200 nm. The grain alignment of the CeO2 layer on an MAD tape was drastically improved with increasing its thickness. The Deltaphi value of the in-plane grain alignment decreased from 25.4degrees for the Gd2Zr2O7 layer of the MAD tape to 4.9degrees for the CeO2 layer. Using this result, we demonstrated that the total production rate of the buffer layers process was enhanced drastically by the combination of a thinner Gd2Zr2O7 layer by the MAD method and a thicker CeO2 layer by the PLD method. The improved in-plane grain alignment resulted in higher J(c) in YBCO on the CeO2 buffer layer. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.