• Progress in Superconductivity
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.74-78
• /
• 2004

YBCO coated conductor is one of the most promising materials as a new generations wire especially for practical power applications. In this work, $YBa_2$$Cu_3$$O_{7}$ -$\delta$/(YBCO) coated conductors (CC) were deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) from buffer layers to superconducting layer on hi-axially textured metal tape. The oxide multilayer buffered substrate of architectures of $CeO_2$/$YSZ/Y_2$$O_3$ was fabricated by PLD at steady status. Then YBCO layer was deposited on RABiTS substrate by stationary and reel-to-reel (R2R) continuous process and we compared with deposition conditions of both processes. The degree of texture of each layer was investigated using X-ray diffraction including $\theta$-2$\theta$ scans, $\omega$-scans and $\Phi$-scans analysis. Their surface morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The FWHM of the X-ray $\Phi$-scans and $\Phi$-scans indicated that YBCO and buffer layers closely replicate the in-plane and out-of-plane texture of metal tape. Critical current (Ic) at 77 K, self-field of 75.8 A/cm-width, critical temperature (Tc) of 85 K, and critical current density (Ic) of 3.7 MA/$\textrm{cm}^2$ were measured from coated conductor deposited by stationary process. And coated conductor deposited by R2R continuous process had Ic of 57.5 A/cm-width, Tc of 86.5 K and Jc of 2.0 MA/$\textrm{cm}^2$. The film also exhibits a homogeneous and dense surface morphology.

• Progress in Superconductivity
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.106-111
• /
• 2010

Sapphire resonators with $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}$ (YBCO) endplates have provided a way to realize extremely high quality factor due to the extremely low dielectric loss of sapphire and conductive loss of YBCO films, which enables to measure the low surface resistance of superconductor films at microwave frequencies. We present microwave properties of HTS sapphire resonators designed for measuring the surface resistance of HTS films at millimeter-wave frequencies by using the two-resonance mode dielectric resonator method. Despite enhanced surface resistance ($R_S$) of YBCO films due to the quadratic frequency dependence of the $R_S$, the unloaded quality factor ($Q_0$) of the $TE_{021}$ mode sapphire resonator still appears to be well above $1\;{\times}\;10^6$ at a mm-wave frequency of 38 GHz at 10 K. However, it appears that the $TE_{012}$ mode $Q_0$ is unexpectedly low despite that the corresponding resonance peak looks uncoupled with parasitic modes. We discuss possible reasons for the unexpected results using the surface resistance at the $TE_{021}$, $TE_{012}$, and $TE_{011}$ mode frequencies.

• Progress in Superconductivity
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.45-51
• /
• 2012

Microwave metrology for the thickness of metallic or superconductive films provides a new way to measure the film thickness in a non-invasive way by using microwave resonators, with the measurement accuracy affected by standard uncertainties in the resonator quality factor, temperature-dependent resonant frequency and the dimensions of the resonators. Here we study effects of the standard uncertainty in the thickness, $t_{cal}$, of a calibration $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-{\delta}}$ (YBCO) film on the measured thicknesses, $t_{RF}$, by using a ~ 40 GHz microwave resonator. For the study, we used five YBCO films having the thicknesses of 70 - 360 nm, for which relative standard uncertainties in $t_{RF}$ due to that in $t_{cal}$ are obtained. The standard uncertainty in $t_{cal}$ was determined with the surface roughness of the film taken into account. It appeared that relative standard uncertainty in $t_{cal}$ significantly affects the $t_{RF}$ values, with the values of 1% (5%) in the former resulting in those of 1-2% (5-9%) for the latter at 10 K. Our results show that, for realizing relative standard uncertainties less than 5% in $t_{RF}$ for all the YBCO films, the surface roughness of the calibration films should be small enough to realize a relative standard uncertainty of less than 2.7% in $t_{cal}$.

• Progress in Superconductivity
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.97-104
• /
• 2011

In the dielectric resonator method, which has been widely used for measuring the microwave surface resistance of superconductors, accuracies in the geometrical factors (G-factors) affect the uncertainty in the measured surface resistance. We compare the G-factors of short-ended sapphire resonator as obtained by using field analysis with those by using computer simulations: The former is obtained by using the analytic expressions for the electric and the magnetic field components inside the resonator, and the latter by using computer software. The G-factors as obtained by using the latter appear to be closer to those obtained by using the former as the resonator space is divided into larger number of sub-space, i.e., a tighter mesh, with a difference of ~8 % observed for a mesh of 14400 sub-spaces reduced to ~2 % for 114996 sub-spaces. Variations in the relative uncertainty in the surface resistance of typical $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}$ superconductor films with those in the G-factors are studied, which provides an upper limit of the relative uncertainty in the G-factors required for realizing the target uncertainty in the surface resistance. These results could be useful in estimating the optimum number of meshes for obtaining the G-factors through computer simulations.