High in-field critical current densities in epitaxial NdBa2Cu3O7−δfilms on RABiTS by pulsed laser deposition

We report the epitaxial growth and superconducting properties for NdBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ (NdBCO) films grown on rolling-assisted, biaxially-textured substrates (RABiTS) by pulsed laser deposition. At the optimum deposition temperature of 760 °C, the critical current densities, J c , at 77 K, self-field, of NdBCO films ranging in thickness from 0.13 to 0.25 µm were found to be in the range 2.2–3.4 MA cm −2 , with a lower thickness corresponding to a higher J c . Compared to epitaxial YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ (YBCO) films, these NdBCO samples are found to have superior field and angular dependences of J c . In an applied field of 1 T, NdBCO of the same thickness has more than twice the J c of YBCO films with a significantly enhanced J c peak for a field applied parallel to the c -axis. These results suggest the presence of an increased density of c -axis correlated pinning centres within NdBCO films compared to YBCO films.