Improvement of spatial homogeneity in IBAD based YBCO coated conductors

Abstract: Prior to the development of fabrication technique for the chemical vapor deposited (CVD) YBa2Cu3O7-δ coated conductor on a IBAD-Gd2Zr2O7, investigations on the improvement of spatial homogeneity have been done. By using spatially resolved measurements and combined multiple microanalysis techniques with length scale of several μm, physical and transport properties of the CVD samples have been investigated before and after fabrication modification. Structural inhomogeneity was visualized using thermoelectric voltage imaging (TVI) technique using a laser scanning microscope. Laser scanning microscopy at superconducting temperature is used to visualize flux flow dissipation; furthermore, mappings of 2D local current flow density distribution have been done using a scanning SQUID microscopy. It has been shown that the superconducting layer consisted of YBCO matrix with localized defects originating from the buffer layer. This led to current non-uniformity and caused high flux flow dissipation within the vicinity of the defects. Process conditions have been modified effectively based on those insights. After fabrication modification, our measurement analyses shows that the texturing of the YBCO layer improved significantly and the appearance of spatially distributed obstacles that are responsible for non-uniform current distribution and localized dissipation are reduced. Our complementing, quick yet non-invasive technique not only can quantify the improvement of YBCO homogeneity but also shed light on the basic understanding of the current limiting mechanism in the IBAD based coated conductors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]