Scanning electron microscopy and resistive transition of in-situ grown YBCO films by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

In this paper we summarize the deposition parameters, the crystalline structure and the critical temperature of the in-situ grown YBa 2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) films obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using our kinetic cool-down regime, described in previous papers. We analyze the resistive transition curves and the corresponding scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures of the best in-situ grown YBCO films, in order to better characterize the films and refine the deposition process. SEM pictures reveal the typical surface morphology of both in-situ grown and post-deposition, oxygen atmosphere annealed YBCO films. A significant smoother surface of the in-situ grown films is obtained. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.