Interaction of cracks and precipitate particles on the REBCO superconducting layers of practical CC tapes through fractographic observations

Electromechanical properties of REBCO CC tapes are known to be limited by defects (cracks) that form in the brittle REBCO layer. These defects could be inherently acquired during the CC tapes' manufacturing process, such as slitting, and which can be initiated at the CC tapes' edges. If propagated and long enough, they are believed to cause critical current degradation and can substantially decrease the delamination strength of CC tapes. Currently, commercially available CC tapes from various manufacturers utilize different growth techniques for depositing the REBCO layers on the substrates in their CC tapes preparation. Their epitaxial techniques, unfortunately, cannot perfectly avoid the formation of particles, in which sometimes acts as current blocking defects, known as outgrowths. Collective research regarding the composition, size, and formation of these particles for various CC tapes with different deposition techniques are particularly uncommon in a single study. Most importantly, these particles might interact in one way or another to the existing cracks. Therefore, systematic investigation on the interactions between the cracks' development mechanism and particles on the REBCO superconducting layers of practical CC tapes are of great importance, especially in the design of superconducting devices. Here, a proper etching process was employed for the CC tapes to expose and observe the REBCO layers, clearly. The scanning electron microscope, field emission scanning microscope, and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy were utilized to observe the interactions between cracks and particles in various practical CC tapes. Particle compositions were identified whether as non-superconducting or superconducting and in what manner it interacts with the cracks were studied.