Influence of the Striation Process and the Thickness of the Cu-Stabilization on the AC Magnetization Loss of Striated REBCO Tape

Rare earth-based coated conductors have large ac magnetization losses, which hinder their use in a variety of applications. A common way to reduce these losses is by striating the superconductor into narrow filaments by means of laser ablation. Practical superconductors also need a sufficiently thick copper stabilization. The best way of creating copper-stabilized filamentized coated conductors is still to be found. In this paper, the ac magnetization losses of differently prepared 12 mm wide coated conductors manufactured by SuperOx were measured. The samples differ in terms of thicknesses of copper stabilization (5 and 10 μm), number of filaments (from 10 to 60), and order for copper deposition (filaments produced before or after electroplating the tape). The ac loss measurements were performed at 77 K in a wide range of frequencies of the external magnetic field, which allows determining the onset of coupling currents and the importance of the coupling losses. Complementary dc measurements of the transverse resistivity between filaments help to understand the path of the coupling currents. Thanks to the variety of tested samples and operating conditions, this paper provides a direct comparison of the two striation processes in commercially available high-temperature superconductor coated conductors.