Influence of Substrate Temperature on the Morphology and Phase Composition of Thin Films Prepared From Y-123 Targets by the IJD Method

Abstract

The Ionized Jet Deposition method (IJD) is a relatively new and rapidly evolving physical vapour deposition technique. IJD has significant potential for cost-effective scale-up fabrication of thin films. Furthermore, IJD's flexibility allows the preparation of thin films from a wide range of materials, due to the possibility of adjusting many depositions parameters. The substrate temperature is crucial as it fundamentally affects the deposition of Y <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sub> Ba <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> Cu <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">7-x</sub> (YBCO or Y-123). Desired Y-123 phase formation depends primarily on the substrate temperature and target stoichiometry. This work was focused on substrate temperature optimization during the deposition in the range from 700 to 830 °C. Thin films were prepared using Y-123 targets and a constant accelerating voltage of 14 kV. The phase composition of the samples was analysed by the XRD using the grazing incident geometry. The homogeneity and surface morphology were studied by SEM method confirming a surface morphology with “droplets” typical for the HTS thin films prepared by IJD.