A simplified superconducting coated conductor design with Fe-based superconductors on glass and flexible metallic substrates

Abstract Iron-based superconductors have attracted great research interests from both the intriguing fundamental superconducting mechanism aspects and their potential applications in high fields owing to their high critical field H c2 and low field anisotropy. However, one critical factor limiting the commercial applications of superconducting coated conductors is the significant manufacturing costs involved in the processing of the complex layered buffers and the subsequent epitaxial growth of superconducting coated conductors. Here we demonstrate a much simplified superconducting coated conductor design for Fe-based superconductor on glass and metallic substrates without bi-axial texturing buffers. Using this design, FeSe 0.1 Te 0.9 thin films on glass show superconducting properties of critical temperatures T c zero of 10 K, and T c onset of 12.5 K, self-field critical current density ( J c ) of 2.1 × 10 4  A/cm 2 at 4 K, and upper critical field ( H c2 ) as high as 126 T. This work could lay a critical foundation toward future practical applications of Fe-based superconductor coated conductors.