The effect of subdividing superconducting YBCO films on YSZ-buffered hastel
loy substrates into arrays of parallel strips on the AC loss was investigat
ed. Measurements of the loss component of the AC susceptibility, chi " reve
aled that the frequency-independent hysteretic contribution to chi ", which
is dominant at low frequencies (f less than or similar to 1 kHz), decrease
d by a factor 1/N when the film was subdivided into N parallel strips. As t
he strips were made wider or the separation between them made smaller, the
hysteretic chi " increased. The eddy current contribution to chi ", which o
riginates from the metallic substrate, was found to become dominant with in
creasing frequency and approached a linear frequency dependence at high fre
quencies. The experimental findings are in close agreement with theoretical
predictions of the AC loss in x-arrays of YBCO strips on metallic substrat
es.