Versatile new metalorganic process for preparing superconducting thin films

Authors

M.E. Gross, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey
M. Hong, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey
Sy_Hwang Liou, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
P.K. Gallagher, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey
J. Kwo, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey

Date of this Version

January 1988

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. Appl. Phys. Lett. 52, 160 (1988). © 1988 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. Journal home page = http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

A new technique for producing thin films of the high-temperature perovskite superconductors, LnBa₂Cu₃O_7-x, where Ln represents a rare-earth element, using spin-on metalorganic precursors is described. Pyrolysis of the spin-coated films, consisting of mixed metal (2-ethyl hexanoates), leads to black films up to several microns thick whose degree of orientation is a function of the processing temperature and duration. Representative films of Y Ba₂Cu₃O_7-x on MgO begin to exhibit orientation with the c axis perpendicular to the film plane at heat treatments above 900 °C. The superconducting behavior of a highly oriented film produced at 990 °C is characterized by T_c(onset)=89 K, T_c(R=0)=77 K, and J_c=10³ A cm^-2 at 65 K.