The influence of impurity on the critical thickness of the CeO2 buffer layer for coated conductors

The lattice parameters, band structure, density of state and elastic constant of RE-doped CeO₂ (RE=Sm, Gd, Dy), the buffer material for coated HTS conductors, are calculated using the plane-wave method with pseudopotentials based on the density functional theory (DFT) of first-principle. The rule and mechanism of the effect of rare earth impurity on the critical thickness of the CeO₂ buffer layer are investigated. It is found that, in the range of the calculation, the changes of the lattice volume V and elastic constant E* of CeO₂ with the impurity are mainly determined by the increased electrons δn _e of the system. The relationship of the elastic constant E* and increased electrons δn _e is established. It is indicated that the critical thickness of the CeO₂ single buffer layer doped with Sm, Gd, and Dy may be enhanced by 22%, 43% and 33%, respectively. Supported by the Youth Scientific Research Project of Southwest Jiaotong University (Grant No. 2007Q017), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50588201), and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2007CB616906)