Oxygen out-diffusion in REBCO coated conductor due to heating

TL;DR

This study investigates how heating causes oxygen to diffuse out of REBCO coated conductors, leading to degradation of superconducting properties, with a detailed model and structural analysis to predict thermal effects in practical applications.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive oxygen out-diffusion model for REBCO conductors, linking heat treatment to critical current degradation and interface chemistry changes.

Findings

Critical current decreases with heat treatment time and temperature.

Oxygen out-diffusion forms Cu2O at interfaces and grain boundaries.

The diffusion model predicts thermal degradation in engineering scenarios.

Abstract

Rare earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) coated conductor has emerged as one of the high Tc superconductors suitable for future ultrahigh field superconducting magnet applications. In the design and fabrication of such ultrahigh field REBCO magnets, it is essential to understand the behavior of REBCO coated conductor. The effect of heating on the properties of commercial REBCO coated conductors is very important for many practical reasons. Nevertheless, a comprehensive study on this effect have not yet been presented in the published literature. This work studies a commercial REBCO coated conductor heat-treated at temperatures between 175 {\deg}C and 300 {\deg}C for various durations. Critical current and lap joint resistivity were measured at 77 K and 4.2 K for the heat-treated samples. We found that critical current degrades with heat treatment time and temperature. This degradation can be described by a one-dimensional oxygen out-diffusion model with a diffusion coefficient of D = 2.5 x 10-6 exp (-1.17 eV/kT) m2/s. The heat treatment also causes appreciable increase in joint resistivity. Comprehensive structural and chemical analyses were performed on Cu/Ag/RECBO interfaces by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Our electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) study provided direct evidence of oxygen deficiency in the heat treated REBCO samples. In addition, it is found that the oxygen diffused out of the REBCO layer forms mostly Cu2O at both Ag/REBCO and Cu/Ag interfaces. Cu2O is also observed at grain boundaries of the Ag layer. The oxygen out-diffusion model proposed in this work is used to predict REBCO thermal degradation in several engineering scenarios.