Transport and anisotropic properties of coated conductors deposited by PLD on steel substrates

Coated conductors deposited by a novel high-rate pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique on ion-beam-assisted-deposition (IBAD) layers of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) on non-magnetic steel ribbons were investigated. An XRD analysis of the superconducting layers showed in-plane alignments with a FWHM from 10 to 25/spl deg/ and an out-of-plane alignment of better than 2/spl deg/. We report on the field and temperature dependence of the critical transport current density in these YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-/spl delta// films of various thickness. In addition, the angular dependence of the transport current at various external magnetic fields is presented. Thirdly, artificial pinning centers were introduced into the superconductors by neutron irradiation. The influence of these defects on the critical current densities and on the anisotropy ratio are discussed.