Preparation of YBCO coated conductor on metallic tapes using an MOD process

We developed an all-MOD process, whereby we used MOD to deposit both YBCO and oxide buffer layers on {100}<001> Ni tapes. Highly in-plane textured crack-free CeGd-O (CGO) buffer layers were successfully fabricated on cube-textured Ni tapes in the case of Gd concentrations greater than 10 mol%. Ce-Gd-O compounds formed solid-solutions with a Gd content of less than 45 mol%. Highly in-plane textured YBCO films were also obtained on the CGO-buffered Ni tapes. The reacted BaCeO3 layer was not observed at the interface between the Gd-rich CGO buffer layer and the YBCO films. This result indicated that the CGO buffer layer had less chemical reactivity with YBCO than the CeO2, buffer layer. J(c) values of the YBCO films were 0.1 MA/cm(2) on the CGO-buffered Ni tapes. TEM observation indicated that this low J(c) value was caused by the diffusion of the Ni elements from the substrate through the CGO buffer layer. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.