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Nucleation and growth rate influence on microstructure and critical currents of TFA-YBa2Cu3O7 under low-pressure conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

H. Chen ,
K. Zalamova ,
A. Pomar ,
X. Granados ,
T. Puig  and
X. Obradors
H. Chen
Affiliation:
Applied Superconductivity Research Center, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China; and Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus U.A. Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
K. Zalamova
Affiliation:
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus U.A. Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
A. Pomar
Affiliation:
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus U.A. Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
X. Granados
Affiliation:
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus U.A. Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
T. Puig
Affiliation:
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus U.A. Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
X. Obradors*
Affiliation:
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus U.A. Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: xavier.obradors@icmab.es
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Abstract

The effects of variable conversion parameters on the microstructure and critical currents of TFA-derived YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) films annealed under low-pressure conditions were investigated, accompanied by the analysis of their relationship with the nucleation process and the growth rate. It is found that non-c-axis oriented YBCO grains are formed under high supersaturation conditions, i.e., by increasing oxygen pressure, water pressure, or temperature. The optimal PH2O–PO2 window for preparation of completely c-axis oriented YBCO films expands as the total pressure rises from 50 to 100 mbar due to the decrease of supersaturation at enhanced total pressure; the corresponding maximum growth rate is only slightly increased up to 0.6 nm/s. Additionally, it is shown that the gas flow needs to be high enough to avoid random nucleation of YBCO grains. A single gas-flow–water-pressure diagram, showing simultaneously the film-growth rate, allows visualizing the cross-linked influence of processing parameters to achieve c-axis oriented YBCO films with Jc above 1 MA/cm2 in one single growth step.

Keywords

Solution DepositionSuperconductingNucleation & Growth

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Type
Articles
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Journal of Materials Research , Volume 25 , Issue 12 , December 2010 , pp. 2371 - 2379
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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