Preparation of second buffer layers on IBAD tapes by PLD

We have studied the crystalline texture improvement of the second buffer layers of Gd 2 Zr 2 O 7 and CeO 2 grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on the first buffer layer of biaxially aligned Gd 2 Zr 2 O 7 film, which formed by ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) with Δ φ of 10° on metal tape. The Δ φ for the second buffer layers rapidly decreased with the thickness, and reached 5° at the thickness of 1.4 and 0.8 μm, for Gd 2 Zr 2 O 7 and CeO 2 , respectively. TEM observations indicated that sharply textured second buffer layers had largely grown grains with the diameters near 1 μm. Severe contrasts in TEM from dense defect structures were observed in the initial growth stage of PLD, which gradually relaxed with the growth thickness. J C of 2.9 MA/cm 2 were obtained in a 10 cm long Y-123 film by using the sharply aligned CeO 2 second buffer layer on IBAD-Gd 2 Zr 2 O 7 template tape.