Micropatterning of epitaxially grown YBCO thin films on ZrO 2-buffered silicon single crystals

Abstract

Superconducting YBaCuO thin films are deposited on silicon (100) substrates where an intermediate buffer layer of yttria stablized zirconia [YSZ] is used to prevent interdiffusion and interfacial reactions. Both layers are grown epitaxially by the pulsed laser deposition technique. The films are patterned by two different schemes with different capabilities for ultrafine line definition. One is the conventional photoresist technique combined with ion milling, the other is a new type of selective epitaxy of the YBCO thin films on prepatterned YSZ thin films. In both cases critical temperatures around 90 K and critical currents exceeding 10 6 A/cm 2 at 77K are achieved.