Characterization of a cube textured CU2O buffer layer on Cu tapes for YBCO coated conductors

Abstract

YBa2Cu3OX (YBCO) coated conductors have been fabricated on cube textured Cu or Cu-based alloy substrates using various buffer layers such as CeO2, ZrO2, etc. Fabrication of buffer layers on Cu substrates using surface-oxidation epitaxy (SOE) has the potential to reduce the process complexibility and make the coated conductor more cost effective. In this work, we fabricated cube textured Cu2O as a component buffer layer by thermal oxidation of cube textured Cu(200) substrates. A biaxially-aligned textured Cu2O layer was obtained for 1 min oxidation in air at 1000 degrees C. Texture analysis was performed using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. Microstructural characteristics of the layer were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results suggested that theCu(2)O can be a promising buffer layer for YBCO coated conductors from the viewpoint of the simplification of the process.