Development of cost-effective HTS superconductor.: Simple heat treatment and low-cost substrate Ni/NiO

Abstract Without using costly Ag, Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox (Bi-2212) conductor has been fabricated successfully on low-cost Ni tape substrate by means of a simple heat treatment. Commercial Ni tapes were heat-treated in air and thus NiO layer was formed as the buffer layer for deposition of Bi-2212. Then, Bi-2212 precursor was coated and heat-treated with a conventional slow cooling step. The obtained superconducting tape exhibited high critical current and critical current density: 184 A and 1.5×105 A/cm2 at 4.2 K and 10 T, respectively.