Biaxially textured Ni-alloy tapes as substrates for buffer and Y-Ba-Cu-O film growth

Highly cube ({001}⟨100⟩) textured Ni- and Ni-alloy tapes are produced by heavy cold rolling and recrystallisation annealing. Due to impurities in Ni, abnormal grain growth destroying the cube texture often occurs at temperatures above 600°C. This could be prevented by alloying Ni with 0.1 at.% of different elements each leading to a texture improvement with increasing annealing temperature. YBa₂ Cu₃O_7-δ-films deposited on these tapes reach critical current densities up to 0.5×10⁶ A/cm². Also Ni-Cr and Ni-V were successfully processed to highly cube textured tapes. Their magnetic and mechanical properties were characterized. Ni-13 at.% Cr and Ni-11 at.% V have a Curie temperature below 77 K. Their yield strength is three times higher than that of unalloyed Ni