Fabrication of biaxially textured Cu–Ni alloy tapes for YBCO coated conductor

Abstract Nickel is well suited as a substrate material for YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7− x coated conductors. However, nickel’s ferromagnetism leads to AC losses when it is used in AC applications. In this paper, Cu–Ni non-magnetic tapes were made for YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7− x film deposition. The biaxially textured Cu–Ni alloy tapes were formed through heavy cold rolling followed by recrystallization heat treatment. Cu–Ni alloy tapes with sharp cube texture, full width at half maximum (FWHM) less than 9° for X-ray (1 1 1) ϕ -scan, were obtained. The NiO(2 0 0) buffer layer was formed on Cu–Ni alloy tapes by using surface-oxidation epitaxy method. The textures of the substrate and the NiO(2 0 0) buffer layer were characterized by X-ray diffraction θ –2 θ -scan, ϕ -scan and pole figures. The surface morphology of NiO buffer layer on the Cu–Ni alloy tapes was observed by scanning electron microscope.