Thin film composites of YBa 2Cu 3O 7 (YBCO) with gold were deposited by inverted cylindrical magnetron sputtering on SrTiO 3 (STO), MgO, and yttrium stabilized zirconium (YSZ) substrates using a bilayer deposition process. The material and electrical properties of crystal structure, surface morphology, resistivity, transition temperature ( T c), resistance ratio, and critical current ( I c) as a function of temperature and small magnetic fields were investigated. Films deposited on STO showed little degradation in superconducting properties up to 500 Å of gold with 1 kÅ of YBCO; for YSZ and MgO, the films showed a rapid fall-off in T c with gold thickness. For YSZ, 3–10 Å of gold caused the films to become insulating; however, for gold greater than 25 Å, the films were superconducting but T c rapidly fell to zero by 500 Å of gold. Composites on MgO showed the most rapid fall-off in T c going to zero by 200 Å of gold. The temperature dependence of I c was predominately quadratic. However, some films showed a crossover between quadratic and linear temperature dependence in I c. The I c of all the composites showed a response to small magnetic fields with the films on STO being the least sensitive and those on MgO the most. There was a trade-off between T c and field response with the film having the greatest response having the lowest T c. These composite films show potential for vortex flow device development.