Fabrication of YBCO thick films on cube textured Ni substrate with NiO intermediate layer

High quality, sharp cube textured Ni substrates have been fabricated by a cold rolling and a recrystallization annealing process. X ray results show that there are some problems to be noted in the prevalent quality evaluation for a cube textured Ni substrate. In-plane-aligned, c axis-oriented YBa2Cu3O7(YBCO) thick films were grown on the textured Ni substrate with self-oxidized NiO intermediate layer by an ink-printed and floating zone heating method. The values of the resistively measured Tc (onset) were 86 K. This is a very useful and promising method for producing the long YBCO tapes with high Jc, although Jc is lower at present.