Laser Ablated Superconducting and Related Thin Films:A Microscopical Investigation

Laser ablated high temperature superconducting and related thin films are investigated with a microscopical point of view.The microstructure and microchemistry of three thin films(Y-Ba-Cu-O, Bi-Pb-Sr-Ca-Cu-O and Sr-Ca-Cu-O)are demonstrated as examples of laser ablation products.

Matching effect in superconducting NbN thin film with a square lattice of holes

A square hole array is fabricated over a micro-bridge of NbN thin film by electron beam lithography and reactive ion milling. Magneto-resistance is measured across the micro-bridge filled with a hole array near the superconducting transition temperature. It is found that magneto-resistance minima occur when the number of vortices is an integer multiple or a fractional multiple of the number of holes. The temperature and the current dependences of the matching effect are studied.

High quality YBCO superconductive thin films fabricated by laser molecular beam epitaxy

High quality YBa2Cu3O6+x (YBCO) superconductive thin films have been fabricated on the SrTiO3(100) substrate using laser molecular beam epitaxy (laser-MBE).The active oxygen source was used,which made the necessary ambient oxygen pressure be 2-3 orders lower than that in pulsed laser deposition (PLD).Tc0 is 85-87 K,and Jc～1.0×106 A/cm2.Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements show that no obvious particulates can be observed and the root mean square roughness is 7.8 nm.High stability DC superconducting quantum interference devices (DC-SQUID) was fabricated using this YBCO thin film.

A selective control of volatile and non-volatile superconductivity in an insulating copper oxide via ionic liquid gating

Manipulating the superconducting states of high transition temperature(high-Tc)cuprate superconductors in an efficient and reliable way is of great importance for their applications in next-generation electronics.Here,employing ionic liquid gating,a selective control of volatile and non-volatile superconductivity is achieved in pristine insulating Pr2CuO4±δ(PCO)films,based on two distinct mechanisms.Firstly,with positive electric fields,the film can be reversibly switched between superconducting and non-superconducting states,attributed to the carrier doping effect.Secondly,the film becomes more resistive by applying negative bias voltage up to-4V,but strikingly,a non-volatile superconductivity is achieved once the gate voltage is removed.Such phenomenon represents a distinctive route of manipulating superconductivity in PCO,resulting from the doping healing of oxygen vacancies in copper-oxygen planes as unravelled by high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope and in situ X-ray diffraction experiments.The effective manipulation of volatile/non-volatile superconductivity in the same parent cuprate brings more functionalities to superconducting electronics,as well as supplies flexible samples for investigating the nature of quantum phase transitions in high-Tcsuperconductors.

Preparation of Bi-2212/YBCO heterostructure and their interfacial characters

YBa_(2)Cu_(3)O_(7‐x)(YBCO)thin films were prepared on LaAlO_(3)(LAO)substrates by a sol–gel method,and the epitaxial growth of Bi‐2212 thin films on YBCO thin films was investigated.Both YBCO and Bi_(2)Sr_(2)Ca1Cu_(2)O_(8)+δ(Bi‐2212)bilayer films exhibit good biaxial texture and superconducting properties.Afterward,a cross‐shaped Bi‐2212/YBCO heterostructure was fabricated,and its interfacial atomic arrangement and I‐V characteristics were analyzed.Atomic‐resolution STEM images obtained from a spherical‐aberration‐corrected transmission electron microscope show that two superconducting films exhibit a layered structure and the atoms inside the films are artfully arranged.Moreover,the order of the seven atomic layers between Bi‐2212 and YBCO layers with a thickness of about 1.32 nm is misarranged.Among them,the Y‐O layer of YBCO and the Sr‐O layer of Bi‐2212 share a CuO_(2) layer.The I‐V curves of Bi‐2212/YBCO bilayer films show that the seven misarranged atomic layers at Bi‐2212/YBCO interface acts as a barrier layer,which means that a Josephson junction can be fabricated using this interface characters.