Textured non-magnetic Ni-V 10% alloy tape for epitaxial growth of high Tc superconductors

The problem of developing non magnetic cube textured metallic substrates other than pure Ni, to be used for epitaxial deposition of Y-123 superconducting film (with an intermediate oxide buffer layer) is being tackled since three years by several laboratories. As reported in this paper, the authors have developed a new substrate, based on Ni-V 10 wt % alloy, which exhibits a cube texture comparable to Ni, but has a Curie temperature < 4.2 K; in addition, it has a hardness which is more than twice higher and a comparable oxidation resistance