Fabrication of seed/buffer layers on metallic substrates for YBCO coated conductors

LaNiO₃ (LNO) buffer layers with good c-axis orientation on SrTiO₃ (STO), LaAlO₃ (LAO), NiO/STO and SOE (NiO/Ni) tapes were successfully fabricated by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. Biaxially aligned neodymium (NdGaO₃, NGO) seed layers were successfully fabricated on the STO, LAO and LNO buffer layer by PLD method and post-annealing process. And also, the good biaxial orientation YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) films on NGO seed layers were deposited by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) method. From this work, it has been proved for the first time that NGO thin film can be used as a seed layer for YBCO thick film deposition by the LPE method. This NGO thin film which is deposited by the PLD method at room temperature and post-annealed at 950°C for 5 h in air, is low cost and very effective for the coated conductor production by LPE.