Fast One Step Preparation of High Quality YBa2Cu3O7-x Thin Films by Laser Ablation

Abstract

Thin films of YBa2Cu3O7-x have been produced in situ by laser ablation without further low temperature annealing. Films were found to be polycrystalline with the c-axis preferentially oriented normal to the substrate plane on single crystalline (001)-SrTiO3 and (random)-ZrO2. Complete superconducting transitions above 92 K with transition widths of about 1K have been observed even on YSZ substrates. Critical current densities, jc (77 K), of more than 1.5 x 10 6 A/cm2 could be obtained on SrTiO3-substrates. This new technique enables deposition of films as this as 10 nm with excellent superconducting properties; it requires short process times (< 5 min) and is a versatile method which is also applicable to other materials. The high quality of the thin films over large areas was demonstrated by the measurement of persistent superconducting current densities (77K) of several 10 5 A/cm2 in a 1mm broad ring of 9 mm diameter. No dissipation of this persistent current could be observed during one hour.