Progress in research and development for REBCO coated conductors by reactive co-evaporation

This paper reviews recent progress in research and development (R&D) of reactive co-evaporation for high performance REBCO coated conductors in Korea. Two types of reactive co-evaporation methods were developed for the deposition of SmBCO and GdBCO superconducting layers respectively on the IBAD (Ion Beam Assisted Deposition)-MgO template in the Korean coated conductor project. Batch type reactive co-evaporation equipment and its processing were developed for SmBCO coated conductors at Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) in conjunction with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and a very high critical current exceeding 1,000 A/cm at 77 K in the self field was achieved through the optimization of deposition parameters. Reel-to-reel type reactive co-evaporation processing with a high conversion rate was also developed, while long length GdBCO coated conductors have been routinely produced by SuNAM Co. The minimum critical current of 422 A/cm-w at 77 K in self field was confirmed for 1 km-long GdBCO tape.