Individual grain boundary properties and overall performance of metal-organic deposition coated conductors

Journal article

We have investigated single grain boundaries (GBs) isolated in coated conductors produced by metal-organic deposition. When a magnetic field is swept in the film plane, an angle-dependent crossover from boundary to grain limited critical current density Jc is found. In the force-free orientation, even at fields as high as 8 T, the GBs still limit Jc. We deduce that this effect is a direct consequence of GB meandering. We have employed these single GB results to explain the dependence of Jc of polycrystalline tracks on their width: in-plane measurements become flatter as the tracks are narrowed down. This result is consistent with the stronger GB limitation at field configurations close to force-free found from the isolated boundaries. Our study shows that for certain geometries even at high fields the effect of GBs cannot be neglected. © 2010 The American Physical Society.

Authors: Weigand, M; Speller, S; Hughes, G; Rutter, N; Lozano-Perez, S

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Physical Review B
• Volume: 81
• Issue: 17
• Publication date: 2010-05-01
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.81.174537
• EISSN: 1550-235X
• ISSN: 1098-0121
• Language: English