Anisotropy of transport properties normal and parallel to the tape plane in Bi-2223/Ag tapes
We have performed transport, resistivity and critical current measurements on Bi-2223/Ag tapes with current directions both parallel and perpendicular to the tape plane in magnetic fields up to 7 T and 50<T<250 K. We find that the resistivity along the tape normal (nominal c-axis in a textured tape) is metallic, scales with the in-plane resistivity at all fields and is dramatically reduced from single crystal c-axis values. Similarly, the critical current along the tape normal exhibits magnetic field and field orientation dependences similar to those for current flow along the tape plane. These results indicate that current flow along CuO/sub 2/ planes dominates current transport even along the tape normal in highly textured tapes.<<ETX>>