Fabricating Buffer Layers for YBa2Cu3Oy Coated Conductor by Surface Oxidation Epitaxy

NiO buffer layers were formed on a tape of Ni for making YBCO coated conductor by surface-oxidation epitaxy (SOE) process. Different oxidizing conditions such as temperature and duration were studied for Ni tapes. It is found that the texture of NiO could be affected directly by the orientation and surface of substrate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) 2-2θ scan, φ-scan, and pole figure were employed to characterize the in-plane alignment and cube texture. X-ray φ-scan shows that NiO film is formed on Ni tape with high cube texture and a typical value at the full width at half maximum (FWHM) is ≤7.5°. Scanning electron microscopy was used to study the surface morphology of NiO films. No crack is found and the films appear dense. Such technique is simple and of low cost with perfect reproducibility, promising for developing long tapes.