Morphology and Defect Structure of Sputtered High-Quality In-Situ YBa2Cu3O7−δ Films

Abstract

AbstractTransmission Electron Microscopy has been used to study the morphology and defect structure of sharp superconducting transition, high (2-6 ×107 A/cm2) critical current YBa2Cu3O7−δ films on MgO substrates. These were oriented such that the unit cell axes of the film aligned with those of the substrate, with some domains obeying a second orientation relationship rotated by 45° in the plane of the film, i.e. film <110> parallel to substrate <100>. The latter is not expected from simple lattice matching considerations. A strong influence of substrate surface topography on film microstructure was noted, leading to a high density of out-of-phase, low-angle tilt, and other boundaries near the substrate-film interface, which decreased with increasing distance from the substrate. Finally, the effects on film microstructure of two variables of specific interest in our sputtering system were investigated: the thickness of the deposited film, and the temperature at which a high oxygen pressure (500 torr) is introduced after deposition is complete. Increases in film thickness resulted in longer, more widely spaced twins, whereas lower oxygenation temperatures resulted in shorter twins.