S. Beauquis

Reel-to-reel MOCVD for YBCO coated conductor

A reel-to reel MOCVD system has been developed for a fast and economic process to get high quality YBCO coated conductor tapes. Several oxides buffer layer sequences (based on YSZ, CeO/sub 2/, Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/...) were then grown epitaxially on two kinds of tape. Effective stacking for MOCVD reported here are YSZ/Y/sub 2/O/sub 3//YBCO and YSZ/CeO/sub 2//YBCO, respectively, on oxidized Ni RABiTS microalloys (0,1% W) and on SS/YSZ (IBAD) tapes. First, EBSD and AFM techniques have been used to characterize the substrates. Superconducting YBCO films were fully characterized by SEM, XRD and AC susceptibility measurements Epitaxial growth was depicted with a strong in-plane and out-of plane texture: FWHM of YBCO /spl phi/-scans were 8.5/spl deg/ on Ni tape and 9/spl deg/ on IBAD Hastelloy tapes. High performances were also measured by AC susceptibility, with J/sub c/ values of 0.6 MA/cm/sup 2/ at 77 K (0 T) on Ni tape and close to 1 MA/cm/sup 2/ on IBAD substrates, with a sharp transition (/spl Delta/T/sub c/ < 0.4 K) and a T/sub c/ onset at 90 K. Deposition of 2 meter buffered YSZ and CeO/sub 2//YBCO films have also been performed showing good in-plane alignment (/spl phi/-scan YSZ: FWHM = 11/spl deg/) with a tape velocity set at 4 m/h.

Tl-based superconducting films by spray pyrolysis and MOCVD

Tl-1223 and Tl-2223 superconducting films have been prepared using spray pyrolysis and MOCVD for the deposition of the precursor layer and a solid source of thallium for the subsequent thallination step. For the former phase, critical temperatures and critical current densities up to 113 K and 2.5 MA/cm2 (77 K, 0 T) have been obtained after 3 to 6 hours at 860-870°C. Pure Tl-2223 films are by far more difficult to prepare. This can be achieved by operating at 890-900°C or with a fluorine containing source. The resulting films have then poor superconducting properties due to the presence of holes. Working at 875°C yields multiphase films (Tl-2223 + Tl-2212 or Tl-2223 + Tl-1223) with however better properties

Formation kinetics study of the Tl-2223 phase in bulk samples

An isothermal kinetics study of the transformation of Tl-2212 into Tl-2223 has been carried out at four different temperatures. The Tl-2223 and Tl-2212 weight fraction have been deduced from Rietveld analysis of XRD patterns and the transformed fraction α has been calculated for each sample. The results indicate that the transformation is limited by diffusion and particularly by the thickening of large plates after lateral impingement.