Magnetic and structural characterization of inkjet-printed TFAYBa2Cu3O7-x/MODCZO/ABADYSZ/SS coated conductors

The superconductor industry is demanding new methodologies to manufacture km-long, high quality coated conductors at high growth rates, using cost-effective, scalable processes. We report on the fabrication by an all-chemical deposition method of highly textured, thick (0.9 mu m) inkjet-printed YBCO films, using a Ce0.9Zr0.1O2 (CZO) capping layer deposited by MOD, on top of robust, buffered (ABAD)YSZ/SS substrates. Thinner, 0.25 mu m spin-coated YBCO films were also analyzed for comparison. The structural study performed by x-ray diffraction, optical, AFM, SEM and TEM microscopy demonstrates the success of the capping layer for enhancing the planarity of the as-received tape and obtaining highly homogeneous and well-textured YBCO films. DC magnetometry granularity analysis was used to determine the mean superconducting grain diameter, similar to 2.5 mu m, and the intra-and intergranular critical current densities of the coated conductors (CCs). For the thin, spin-coated sample, high self-field intragrain critical currents were measured (J(c)(G) = 40, 3.3 MA cm(-2) at 5, 77 K). For the thick, inkjet-printed tape J(c)(G) was reduced by similar to 30%, but, notably, the percolative critical current, J(c)(GB) = 12 : 5 MA cm(-2), was only similar to 10% smaller at 5 K, thanks to good preservation of the texture. At 77 K, J(c)(GB) = 1.3 MA cm(-2) was achieved, implying a critical current of I-c = 117 A/cm-width. AC susceptibility measurements allowed us to demonstrate the high homogeneity of the fabricated CCs, and investigate the magnetic vortex-pinning phase diagram. Remarkably, the thick, inkjet-printed sample showed comparable irreversibility line (IL) and activation energy for thermal depinning, U-e(H), to the thin sample. The present results open new perspectives for the fabrication of high quality-to-cost ratio, all-chemical CCs with yet higher I-c values by inkjet printing multideposition of thicker YBCO layers.