Modified Lanthanum Zirconium Oxide Buffer for Low-Cost, High Performance YBCO Coated Conductors
- ORNL
- American Superconductor Corporation, Westborough, MA
Lanthanum Zirconium Oxide, La2Zr2O7 (LZO) has been developed as a potential replacement barrier layer in the standard RABiTS three-layer architecture of physical vapor deposited CeO2 cap/YSZ barrier/Y2O3 seed/Ni-5W. The main focus of this research is to see (i) whether we can improve further the barrier properties of LZO; (ii) can we widen the LZO composition and still achieve the high performance?; and (iii) is it possible to reduce the number of buffer layers? We report a systematic investigation of the LZO film growth with varying compositions of La:Zr ratio in the La2O3-ZrO2 system. Using metal-organic deposition (MOD) process, we have grown smooth, crack-free, epitaxial thin films of LaxZr1-xOy (x = 0.2-0.6) on standard Y2O3 buffered Ni-5W substrates in short lengths. Detailed XRD studies indicate that a single epitaxial LZO phase without the (111) texture can be achieved in a wider compositional window of x = 0.2-0.6 in LaxZr1-xOy. Both CeO2 cap layers and MOD-YBCO films were grown 2 epitaxially on these modified LZO barriers. Transport property measurements indicate that we can achieve a higher critical current, Ic of 274-292 A/cm at 77 K and self-field on MOD-YBCO films grown on LaxZr1-xOy (x = 0.4-0.6) films. These results indicate that LZO films can be grown with a wider compositional window and still achieve high performance YBCO coated conductors. In addition, epitaxial MOD LaxZr1-xOy (x = 0.25) films were grown directly on biaxially textured Ni-3W substrates. About 3 m thick YBCO films with a Jc of 0.55 MA/cm2 at 77 K and 0.01 T were grown on a single MOD LZO buffered Ni-3W substrate using pulsed laser deposition. This work promises a route for producing simplified buffer architecture for RABiTS based YBCO coated conductors.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- OE USDOE - Office of Electric Transmission and Distribution
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 973550
- Journal Information:
- Physica C, Journal Name: Physica C Journal Issue: 5-6 Vol. 470
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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