Abstract
Oxypnictide thin film growth by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is one of many insufficiently resolved issues in the research of iron-based superconductors. Here we report on the successful realization of superconducting SmO1−xFxFeAs oxypnictide thin film growth by in-situ PLD on CaF2 (fluorite) substrates. CaF2 acts as fluorine supplier by diffusion and thus enables superconducting oxypnictide thin film growth by PLD. Films are grown heteroepitaxially and characteristically have a broad resistive normal-to-superconducting transition. Best films have onset transition temperatures around 40 K. The proposed in-situ PLD film growth offers an alternative and cheap route for the fabrication of iron oxypnictides. PLD becomes now an additional option for iron oxypnictide synthesis.
Highlights
Discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in iron oxypnictides[1] that crystallize in the ZrCuSiAs-structure[2] led to surprises, provoked expectations, and keeps on exerting fascination
In-situ pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of iron oxypnictides is characterized by a constrained window of deposition parameters such as temperature, energy density on the target surface and target-substrate distance
The experiments have confirmed that superconductivity in iron oxypnictides depends sensitively on the stoichiometry of the rare earth oxide layer in the 1111 unit-cell
Summary
Discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in iron oxypnictides[1] that crystallize in the ZrCuSiAs-structure[2] (so-called 1111) led to surprises, provoked expectations, and keeps on exerting fascination. Their high critical temperatures up to Tc ≈ 55 K and their high upper critical fields μ0Hc2 > 50 T create an attractive goal for synthesis, engineering and science of oxypnictide thin films, their growth has been a challenge ever since 20083. For achieving F-doping in the as-grown films we propose here another method where F-doping is obtained via diffusion from the substrate This approach enables the first successful growth of superconducting iron oxypnictide thin films by in-situ PLD. PLD is used for the creation of nucleation centers on the substrate but the two-step route clearly deviates from a typical PLD film growth and suffers from insufficient control of F-doping level[15]
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