BiTEP (biaxially textured electroplating): A novel route for making improved coated conductors, based on a well established technique

We present a new technique for the deposition of Ni on cube textured Ni alloy substrates. It is superior to the commonly used PVD and CVD coating methods and easy to scale up from the laboratory to an industrial long length process. The new route, called 'BiTEP' (biaxially textured electroplating), where biaxially textured Ni alloy substrates are electrolytically plated with Ni, is shown to lead to an outstanding transfer of the texture from the substrate to the pure Ni layer. Several platings from 130 nm to 1.5 µm thickness were made on Ni 96 W 4 , Ni 87 Cr 6.5 W 6.5 and Ni 90 Cr 10 substrates, applying different current densities during electroplating, from 0.2 to 2 A dm −2 . All investigated samples showed epitaxy between the substrates and the Ni film, independent of the layer thickness, the current density used for electroplating, and the substrate material. In Ni–W substrate tapes a sharp cube recrystallization texture with FWHM (111) of <5° was achieved, leading to a current density of 1.35 MA cm −2 (77 K, self-field) in YBCO. Furthermore, commercially available constantan (Ni 44.4 wt%, Cu 54.19 wt%, the rest: Mn, Fe) from our partner ThyssenKrupp VDM was investigated.