Advance in Long-Length REBCO Coated Conductors Prepared by Reel-to-Reel Metalorganic Solution and Ion-Beam-Assisted Deposition

In the present work, we report our recent efforts to improve the homogeneity of MgO buffer layers and superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-delta coated tapes prepared by ion-beam-assisted deposition and metalorganic solution deposition (MOD), respectively. Based on previous research results involving fluorine, a reduced atmospheric pressure is used for the MOD technique to improve the in-plane texture and suppress microcracks in the film, and then more than 500 m of MOD-coated superconducting tape is manufactured, exhibiting an excellent biaxial texture and superconducting performance. The full width at half maximum values for both in-plane and out-of-plane textured films are as low as 3 degrees based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The superconducting current-carrying capacities for 12-mm tapes are approximately 450-520 and 450-500 A for the 100-m level and 500-m level (77 K, self-field), respectively. The current-carrying capacities were measured by both reel-to-reel transport and an inductive system, and the results demonstrated that the cost-effective MOD technique is very promising for long-length high-quality coated conductors.