On narrowing coated conductor film: emergence of granularity-induced field hysteresis of transport critical current

TL;DR

This study investigates how narrowing superconducting coated conductors induces a grain boundary-related hysteresis in transport critical current, highlighting the effects of grain size and substrate type on this phenomenon.

Contribution

It demonstrates the emergence of field hysteresis in transport critical current of narrowed coated conductors due to granularity and compares effects across different substrate types.

Findings

Hysteresis becomes evident when films are patterned into microbridges.

Larger grain size correlates with more pronounced hysteresis.

Hysteresis is less pronounced in films on IBAD substrates.

Abstract

Critical current density Jc in polycrystalline or granular superconducting material is known to be hysteretic with applied field H due to the focusing of field within the boundary between adjacent grains. This is of concern in the so-called coated conductors wherein superconducting film is grown on a granular, but textured surface of a metal substrate. While previous work has mainly been on Jc determined using induced or magnetization currents, the present work utilizes transport current via an applied potential in strip geometry. It is observed that the effect is not as pronounced using transport current, probably due to a large difference in criterion voltage between the two types of measurements. However, when the films are narrowed by patterning into 200-, 100-, or 80-micron, the hysteresis is clearly seen, because of the forcing of percolation across higher-angle grain boundaries. This effect is compared for films grown on ion-beam-assisted-deposited (IBAD) YSZ substrate and those grown on rolling-assisted-biaxially-textures substrates (RABiTS) which have grains that are about ten times larger. The hysteresis is more pronounced for the latter, which is more likely to have a weak grain boundary spanning the width of the microbridge. This is also of concern to applications in which coated conductors will be striated in order to reduce of AC losses.