Epitaxial growth of Yb2O3 buffer layers on biaxially, textured-Ni (100) substrates by sol-gel process

In order to develop an alternative buffer layer architecture using the sol-gel process to produce YBCO (YBaiCujO;) coated conductors, YfoOs has been chosen as the candidate material. Buffer layers of YbzOj were epitaxially grown on biaxially textured-Ni (100) substrates by the sol gel process for the first time. The YbjOj precursor solution was prepared from an alkoxide sol-gel route in 2-methoxyethanol and was deposited on textured-Ni (100) substrates by either spin coating or dip coating methods. The amorphous film was then processed at 1160°C under flowing (96%)Ar/H2(4%) gas mixture for one hour. The YkOj film exhibited a strong c-axis orientation on the Ni (100) substrates. The phi and omega scans indicated good in plane and out of plane orientations. The X-ray (222) pole figure showed a cube-on-cube epitaxy. High current YBCO films were grown on the YbiOj sol-gel bufiered-Ni substrates.