Induced delamination in REBCO coated-conductor tape by a scratch line and bending

•Delamination of the REBCO layer started to form exclusively on the scratch location at tube diameter of 7 mm while the rest of the REBCO surface started to delaminate at tube diameter of 5 mm.•The scratches on the CC tape surface increase the critical bending radius when tape bent (in our case by 2 mm).•The critical current degradation started to occur when first signs of REBCO delamination appeared.•Scratches induce REBCO delamination during the bending process resulting in premature superconductivity degradation of the CC tape.•The presence of scratch line seems to be a crucial factor for REBCO delamination mostly for CC tapes with the thin overlayer(s). The aim of this work is to study delamination promotion of the coated conductor (CC) tape under the influences of the scratches on the Ag surface when bending. For this purpose, the microstructural and superconducting properties of the CC tape bent in helical fashion with different former diameters were analyzed. Such CC tape that exhibits visible damage along its length in the form of “scratch line” caused on the final product was used. The CC tape was bent at a constant lay angle of 45° with a superconducting layer positioned inward to the former core experiencing compression. Transport current measurements in liquid nitrogen were performed to study superconducting properties of the CC tape. The results showed that delamination of the REBCO (Rare-Earth Barium Copper Oxide) layer started to form exclusively on the scratch location at tube diameter of 7 mm (corresponding to strain ε = −0.71 %) while the rest of the REBCO surface started to delaminate at tube diameter of 5 mm (ε = −0.99 %). As the superconducting properties of the CC tape are related with the REBCO delamination, the critical current degraded when first signs of REBCO delamination appeared as expected. Thus, it was observed that the scratches induce REBCO delamination during the bending process resulting in increase of critical bending radius.