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High critical current (Ic) has long been proved important to REBa2Cu3O7−δ (REBCO or RE123) superconductor for the practical applications. To achieve high Ic values, the primary way is to increase the thickness of superconducting layer and to enhance high critical current density (Jc). However, Jc drops precipitously with increasing the thickness of the films. This phenomenon is called the thickness effect, which can be effectively inhibited by fabricating superconductor/interlayer/superconductor tri-layer structure. In this study, a series of YGBCO/CeO2/YGBCO and YGBCO/In doped CeO2 (CeO2 + In)/YGBCO tri-layer films with different interlayer thickness were fabricated. The microstructure, surface morphology and superconducting property of these samples were measured. It was found that all the tri-layer films had pure c-axis orientation. When using CeO2 film as an interlayer, the two YGBCO layers in the tri-layer films were almost completely isolated, resulting in the low Ic values, which were equivalent to the Ic of a single YGBCO layer. While using CeO2 + In film as an interlayer, the Ic values of all the YGBCO/CeO2 + In/YGBCO trilayers were almost double the Ic of a single YGBCO layer, and the Ic values of the trilayers firstly slow increased and then decreased with increasing the thickness of CeO2 + In interlayer. Under the optimal experimental parameters, the Ic value was much higher than that of the a double YGBCO layer without interlayer. The thickness effect of superconducting layer can be effectively inhibited by inserting CeO2 + In interlayer with wide thickness range.

The surface morphology and internal residual stress have influence on the critical current density (Jc) of REBa2Cu3O7-σ (REBCO) coated conductor. In order to modulate them, a series of Y0.5Gd0.5Ba2Cu3O7-σ (YGBCO) films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) through introducing a seed layer in this paper. The thicknesses of seed layer changes from about 2 nm to 30 nm. For comparison, a standard sample without seed layer was fabricated at the same deposition condition. The surface morphology was illustrated by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The surface roughness was scanned by Atomic force microscopy (AFM). The microstructure and internal strain were measured by X-ray Diffraction (XRD). DC four-probe method was used to measure the critical current of the samples at 77 K and self-field. As a result, all samples have high Jc of about 4 MA/cm2, while the self-field Jc of the YGBCO films can be promoted by the seed layer. The results of our research work are as follows. First of all, seed layer makes the deposition of the YGBCO layer much easier to control. By this way, we can decrease the surface roughness of the samples. Furthermore, the internal residual stress of the YGBCO films with seed layer decrease. Finally, the best thickness of the seed layer was found by summarizing and analyzing the conditions of seed layer.

Improvement in the in-filed transport properties of REBa2Cu3O7−δ (RE = rare earth elements, REBCO) coated conductor is needed to meet the performance requirements for various practical applications, which can be accomplished by introducing artificial pinning centers (APCs), such as second phase dopant. However, with increasing dopant level the critical current density Jc at 77 K in zero applied magnetic field decreases. In this paper, in order to improve Jc we propose a seed layer technique. 5 mol% BaHfO3 (BHO) doped Y0.5Gd0.5Ba2Cu3O7−δ (YGBCO) epilayer with an inserted seed layer was grown on CeO2 buffered ion beam assisted deposition MgO (IBAD-MgO) tape by pulsed laser deposition. The effect of the conditions employed to prepare the seed layer, including tape moving speed and chemical composition, on the quality of 5 mol% BHO doped YGBCO epilayer was systematically investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations. It was found that all the samples with seed layer have higher Jc (77 K, self-field) than the 5 mol% BHO doped YGBCO film without seed layer. The seed layer could inhibit deterioration of the Jc at 77 K and self-filed. Especially, the self-seed layer (5 mol% BHO doped YGBCO seed layer) was more effective in improving the crystal quality, surface morphology and superconducting performance. At 4.2 K, the 5 mol% BHO doped YGBCO film with 4 nm thick self-seed layer had a very high flux pinning force density Fp of 860 GN/m3 for B//c under a 9 T field, and more importantly, the peak of the Fp curve was not observed.

Homoepitaxial MgO (Homo-MgO) films, deposited by RF magnetic sputtering method in various experimental conditions, were systematically studied using growth dynamics in older to fully understand their growth mechanism. The results showed that high quality Homo-MgO films could be obtained at high oxygen partial pressure and the thickness of Homo-MgO films were seriously affected by the ratio of O2/Ar. Moreover, an interesting phenomenon we addressed was the growth mode changed with varying the sputtering power, leading to different surface morphology. Most importantly, apart from Homo-MgO films, our theory can also be appropriate for other oxide films grown by RF magnetic sputtering technology.

As an emerging technique for surface smoothing, solution deposition planarization (SDP) has recently drawn more attention on the fabrication of the second generation high temperature superconducting (2G-HTS) tapes. In our work, a number of amorphous oxide layers were deposited on electro-polished or mirror-rolled metallic substrates by chemical solution route. Topography evolution of surface defects on these two types of metallic substrates was thoroughly investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was showed that root mean square roughness values (at 50 × 50 μm 2 scanning scale) on both rough substrates reduced to ∼5 nm after coating with SDP-layer. The smoothing effect was mainly attributed to decrease of the depth at grain boundary grooving on the electro-polished metallic substrate. On the mirror-rolled metallic substrates, the amplitude and frequency of the height fluctuation perpendicular to the rolling direction were gradually reduced as depositing more numbers of SDP-layer. A high J c value of 4.17 MA cm −2 (at 77 K, s.f. ) was achieved on a full stack of YBCO/CeO 2 /IBAD-MgO/SDP-layer/C276 sample. This study enhanced understanding of the topography evolution on the surface defects covered by the SDP-layer, and demonstrated a low-cost route for fabricating IBAD-MgO based YBCO templates with a simplified architecture.

Some works found that target density had not a large effects on the superconducting or structural properties of YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. However, the possible effect of target density on the Y0.5Gd0.5Ba2Cu3O7-δ (YGBCO) is not clear. In this paper, YGBCO thin films were deposited on flexible metal substrates by pulsed laser deposition using target with different densities. The density of each YGBCO target was varied from to 4.0 g/cm3 to 5.5 g/cm3. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the microstructure and superconducting properties of YGBCO films as a function of the target density. The film structures were examined by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The superconducting properties of the YGBCO films were evaluated using the conventional four-probe method and PPMS. It was found that all the YGBCO films had pure c-axis orientation. The target density had effect on the surface morphology and superconducting properties of the YGBCO thin films. With increasing target density, the pore became larger and the distribution density and size of the particles became higher and larger, and the critical current Ic decreased. The YGBCO film deposited at a target density of 4.0 g/cm3 exhibited the highest critical current density Jc of 5.4 MA/cm2 at 77 K and self-field, 47.2 MA/cm2 at 0 T and 8.8 MA/cm2 at 9 T at 4.2 K and B//c.

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) buffer layers were deposited on CeO2 buffered biaxially textured Ni–W substrate by reel-to-reel pulsed laser deposition (PLD) for the application of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) coated conductor and the influence of substrate temperature and laser energy on their crystallinity and microstructure were studied. YSZ thin films were prepared with substrate temperature ranging from 600 to 800 °C and laser energy ranging from 120 to 350 mJ. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to investigate how thin film structure and surface morphology depend on these parameters. It was found that the YSZ films grown at substrate temperature below 600 °C or laser energy above 300 mJ showed amorphous phase, the (0 0 1) preferred orientation and the crystallinity of the YSZ films were improved with increasing the temperature, but the surface roughness increased simultaneously, the SEM images of YSZ films on CeO2/NiW tapes showed surface morphologies without micro-cracks. Based on these results, we developed the epitaxial PLD-YSZ buffer layer process at the tape transfer speed of 3–4 m/h by the reel-to-reel system for 100 m class long YBCO tapes.