A comparative study on the flux pinning properties of Zr-doped YBCO film with those of Sn-doped one prepared by metal-organic deposition

We investigated the flux pinning properties of both 10 mol% Zr-and Sn-doped $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-{\delta}}$ (YBCO) films with the same thickness of ~350 nm for a comparative purpose. The films were prepared on the $SrTiO_3$ (STO) single crystal substrate by the metal-organic deposition (MOD) process. Compared with Sn-doped YBCO film, Zr-doped one exhibited a significant enhancement in the critical current density ($J_c$) and pinning force density ($F_p$). The anisotropic $J_{c,min}/J_{c,max}$ ratio in the field-angle dependence of $J_c$ at 77 K for 1 T was also improved from 0.23 for Sn-doped YBCO to 0.39 for Zr-doped YBCO. Thus, the highest magnetic $J_c$ values of 9.0 and $2.9MA/cm^2$ with the maximum $F_p$ ($F_{p,max}$) values of 19 and $5GN/m^3$ at 65 and 77 K for H // c, respectively, could be achieved from Zr-doped YBCO film. The stronger pinning effect in Zr-doped YBCO film is attributable to smaller $BaZrO_3$ (BZO) nanoparticles (the average size ${\approx}28.4$ nm) than $YBa_2SnO_{5.5}$ (YBSO) nanoparticles (the average size ${\approx}45.0$ nm) incorporated in Sn-doped YBCO film since smaller nanoparticles can generate more defects acting as effective flux pinning sites due to larger incoherent interfacial area for the same doping concentration.