Fabrication of Superconducting YBCO Thin Films on YSZ Substrates

High critical current density thick films of YBCO have been fabricated on yttria stabilised zirconia substrates. The quality and performance of the films was found to depend markedly on the processing of the initial starting powder used to form the printing ink for a fixed film processing cycle. Depending on the powder used, the critical transition temperature, TdR=O), was found to vary between 87 and 91·5 K, and the critical current density was in the range 25 to 1200 A cm-2 at 77 K in zero external magnetic field.