Electropolishing technique of Hastelloy C-276 alloy

Preparing a highly textured, flawless YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) layer by ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) requires a substrate with a smooth surface. In this paper, smooth tapes of Hastelloy C-276, a common template alloy, were prepared by electrochemical polishing, and the surface roughness the tapes was investigating by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. By analyzing these results, it was discussed how the processing parameters affect the surface roughness, and it is found the following optimized processing parameters: current density of 0.104 A.cm(-2), temperature of 50 degrees C, plate spacing of 9 cm and time of 150 s. With these optimized parameters, the substrate roughness decreases to less than 5 nm, meeting the requirements of IBAD.