Growth and characterization of conductive SrRuO₃ and LaNiO₃ multilayers on textured Ni tapes for high-J_c Yba₂Cu₃O_7–delta; coated conductors

Power applications of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coated conductors will require stabilization against thermal runaway. We have developed conductive buffer layers to electrically couple the HTS layer to the underlying metal substrate. The structure comprises the layer sequence of SrRuO₃ (SRO) on LaNiO₃ (LNO) on biaxially textured Ni substrates. We report baseline investigations of compatibility of SRO/LNO multilayer structure with processing of Yba₂Cu₃O_7−δ (YBCO) and demonstrate biaxially textured YBCO films on conductively buffered Ni tapes. These YBCO coatings exhibit self-field J_c values as high as 1.3 × 10⁶ A/cm² at 77 K, and the entire structure (HTS + conductive buffers + metal substrate) shows good electrical connectivity. These results demonstrate that SRO/LNO buffer layers may provide a basis for stabilized coated conductors.