Texture development and superconducting properties of YBCO thick films deposited on buffered metal substrates at various deposition rates

YBa₂Cu₃O_7-x (YBCO) thick films have been grown on buffered metal substrates at different deposition rates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). In-plane texture and superconducting properties of YBCO films have been systematically investigated. It was observed that the in-situ epitaxial growth of YBCO films on buffered metal substrates could be achieved at a very high deposition rate. Under the optimized deposition conditions, X-ray diffraction measurements showed that both in-plane and out-plane texture of YBCO films were mainly dependent on the texture quality of the buffer-layer not the deposition rate. As the deposition rate increased from 1 nm/s to 30 nm/s, the average phi-scan rocking curve of YBCO films was only increased from 10 degree to 12 degree. The omega scan rocking curves kept the same FWHM value of 2 degree. Critical current densities J_c of the order of 10⁶ A/cm² at 77 K and self-field have been achieved at high deposition rate of 30 nm/s by optimizing deposition parameters. Our results demonstrate the practical possibility of YBCO thick film processing at very high deposition rate by PLD on buffered metal substrates.