Pulsed electron deposition (PED) of single buffer layer for 'low-cost' YBCO coated conductors

The challenge for the commercialization of YBCO Coated Conductors (CC) is the development of a low cost manufacturing process to allow for a cheap, fast and continuous deposition of superconducting coatings with high electrical performance. We are currently investigating 2 ways to reduce the CC production costs: i) reducing the complexity of the CC architecture, by growing a single buffer layer based on doped CeO2, and ii) utilizing a new reel-to-reel apparatus for long length CC processing, equipped with a cheap and reliable deposition system (PED, Pulsed Electron Deposition). In this work we report on the successful continuous deposition of very thick (up to 700 nm) doped-CeO2 single buffer layers on biaxially textured Ni-5at%W substrates by PED. XRD patterns display complete orientation and very good texture quality of our samples (FWHM out-of-plane values of approx 6°), over 20 cm length. Optical and electron microscopy show a dense and crack-free film surface and dielectric strength measurement confirms excellent insulating properties. Preliminary results indicate that the simplified single buffer layer structure could be a reliable solution for the reduction of HTS CC production costs