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The buffer layer has been used, for the first time, in the cold-seeding melt-growth (MG) process for REBCO superconductor bulks. In this modified method, a mini pellet was inserted between the seed and the bulk precursor. Notably, the chemical contamination, from the seed material (either REBCO films or SmBCO/NdBCO crystals), was mostly absorbed by the mini pellet. Thus a uniformly high T c REBCO bulk was readily gained. Secondly, the higher limits of the maximum processing temperature (T max ) were evidently raised, which is promisingly beneficial for broadening the growth window and overcoming the self-nucleation in the growth of large-sized bulk. In short, the success of this work is that it protects the bulk from seed-induced contamination, and breaks the limit of T max caused by the intrinsic properties of the seed material. By means of this simple seed/buffer layer/precursor construction, we successfully fabricated a large single grain of GdBCO bulk superconductor with a diameter of 56 mm.

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