Highly cube textured Cu-based substrates for YBCO-coated conductors

Cube textured Cu/Cu-based tapes are shown to be an alternative to Ni/Ni alloy substrates widely used in high current capability YBCO-coated conductors. Copper, other than nickel, is non-magnetic and has a larger thermal and electrical conductivity, keeping up thermal stabilization of the superconductor at cryogenic temperatures. Jointly with the cube texture of exceptional strength that develops after rolling and recrystallization, Cu is, therefore, a candidate material for coated conductor architecture.

In this work, we report on the texturing of pure copper and different copper alloys, such as Cu- Mn and a dispersion hardened Cu-B₄C tape. For Cu and Cu-B₄C, the maximum found in the cube texture histograms are 3.8° and 4.4°, respectively.