Nucleation of epitaxial yttria-stabilized zirconia on biaxially textured (001) Ni for deposited conductors

The nucleation of (001)-oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) directly on the (001) Ni surface is realized via nucleation on an oxygen-terminated nickel surface using pulsed-laser deposition. Under conditions where the ni ckel surface is either oxygen free or substantially covered with NiO, a mix ed orientation of YSZ occurs. The epitaxial YSZ layer grown on a biaxially textured Ni(001) surface was used as a single buffer layer for a high tempe rature superconducting coated conductor architecture, yielding superconduct ing YBa2Cu3O7 films with high critical current densities, J(c). This archit ecture eliminates the necessity for a multilayer buffer architecture, since high J(c) superconducting films are achieved with no intermediate buffer l ayer between the (001) YSZ and the biaxially textured metal. (C) 2000 Ameri can Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)04516-2].