@inproceedings{8531582,
  abstract     = {{YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) coated conductors in electric power applications are demanding highly flexible and low-cost manufacturing processes throughout the energy market. Up to now, textured superconducting YBCO films with the desired properties for the coated conductor architecture are realized via vacuum processes such as pulsed laser deposition and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. It requires costly high-vacuum systems, which are not attractive for industrial scale. Chemical solution deposition (CSD) is a non-vacuum technique and can fulfill demands such as cost-effectiveness, e.g. through high yield, and easy scalability. Moreover, in contrast to dip- or spincoating, the use of drop-on-demand (DOD) ink-jet printing can further strengthen the industrial feasibility, as this technique offers a better control of the deposition process.
In this work, we have shown the possibility to deposit the YBCO nanocomposite thin films starting from small (3-5 nm) preformed small HfO2 nanocrystals (PNCs) as nano-sized defects for flux pinning in combination with low-fluorine CSD approach on single crystal LaAlO3 substrates using a drop-on-demand ink-jet printing technique. This method is unprecedented and shows some key advantages, as this method can improve the superconductors' in-field performance for large-scale applications. This technique can easily deliver small droplets in accurate positions with the ability to control the film thickness, and it enables multideposition of several layers, resulting in a 450 nm thick pure YBCO thin film with critical current density (Jc) of 2.7 MA/cm² in self-field at 77 K, and a 500 nm thick HfO2 PNCs-doped YBCO thin film with self-field Jc of 3.1 MA/cm² at 77 K after one thermal process. By HfO2 PNCs, the pinning force density at 77 K is increased by a factor >3 to 6.8 GN/m³ as well as a much slower decay of Jc as a function of magnetic field due to the combined effect of BaHfO3 particles in size of ~8-20 nm after thermal process and a larger density of twin boundaries. This CSD route shows good potential for low cost long length industrial production (reel-to-reel deposition).}},
  author       = {{Rijckaert, Hannes and Pelemans, Jelle and Hänisch, Jens and Nast, Rain and De Roo, Jonathan and Bennewitz, Jan and Pollefeyt, Glenn and Hemgesberg, Maximilian and Bäcker, Michael and De Keukeleere, Katrien and Van Driessche, Isabel}},
  booktitle    = {{Applied Superconductivity, 13th European conference, Abstracts}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Geneva, Switzerland}},
  title        = {{Ink-jet printing of low-fluorine YBCO nanocomposite thin films with preformed HfO2 nanocrystals}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}