Effect of film thickness on properties of YBa₂Cu₃Oy coated on single or multi-layer oxide buffered biaxially textured nickel tapes

Single Y2O3 or multiple CeO2/YSZ/CeO2 buffer layers, and subsequent YBCO films with various thicknesses (similar to70-1800 nm) are deposited on the cube textured Ni tapes using pulsed laser ablation. The two types of buffers have comparable, good biaxial textures and maintain these features regardless of the NiO layer which forms and increases during the YBCO deposition. X-ray phi-scan FWHM and T-c of YBCO films appear to be insensitive to the change of YBCO thickness and selected buffer, The degradation of local texture, evidenced by the electron back scatter diffraction in SEM, and the associated surface roughness may be the reason of J(c) dropping as YBCO thickness increases. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.