Estimation of magnetic relaxation property for CVD processed YBCO-coated conductors

Ion Beam Assist Deposition/Chemical Vapor Deposition(IBAD/CVD)-processed YBCO-coated conductors with high critical current density Jc at high magnetic fields are expected to be applied to superconducting equipments such as superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES). For application to superconducting magnet in SMES one of the most important properties for superconductors is the relaxation property of superconducting current. In this paper, the relaxation property is investigated for IBAD/CVD-processed YBCO-coated conductors of the superconducting layer in the range of 0.18-0.90 μm. This property can be quantitatively characterized by the apparent pinning potential, U0∗. It is found that U0∗ takes a smaller value due to the two-dimensional pinning mechanism at high magnetic fields for conductor with thinner superconducting layer. Although U0∗ decreases with increasing thickness at low magnetic fields at 20 K, it increases at high magnetic fields. The results are theoretically explained by the model of the flux creep and flow based on the dimensionality of flux pinning. Scaling analysis is examined for the dependence of U0∗ on the magnetic field, temperature and the layer thickness.