The manufacturing of an electroplated Ni layer on textured Cu substrate for Cu-based HTS coated conductors

A sharp cube textured Ni overlayer on Cu substrates has been developed for the manufacturing of long-length RABiTS-based coated conductor tapes. Using a low-cost, non-vacuum and easily scalable technique of electroplating, smooth, crack-free and continuous Ni overlayers were deposited on cube textured Cu substrates without any intermediate layers. In addition, sharp cube textured Sm-doped CeO₂ buffer layers have been grown on the Ni-plated Cu substrates using pulsed laser deposition and found to exhibit in-plane and out-of-plane FWHM values of 6.50° and 5.25°, respectively. This electroplating process promises an efficient route for manufacturing Cu-based HTS coated conductors.