Superconducting and structural properties of Nd2-xCe xCuO4-y thin films on perovskite and fluorite substrates

S. N. Mao, X. X. Xi, Qi Li, T. Venkatesan, D. Prasad Beesabathina, L. Salamanca-Riba, X. D. Wu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

High quality epitaxial Nd2-xCexCuO4-y (NCCO) thin films were fabricated on various substrates by pulsed-laser deposition using N2O reactive gas. The similarities and dissimilarities of the superconducting and structural properties of NCCO films, on perovskite-type substrates such as LaAlO3, NdGaO3, and SrTiO3 and on a fluorite-type substrate of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), were investigated systematically as a function of film thickness by transport measurements and structural analysis. A remarkable reduction of T c was observed when the film was thinner than a critical thickness, which strongly depends on the substrate. The critical thicknesses for which Tc is 80% of Tc max are 1200, 1000, 600, and 450 Å for LaAlO3, NdGaO3, SrTiO3, and YSZ, respectively. YSZ turns out to be the best candidate for the growth of very thin NCCO films among the substrates studied. These results show a strong correlation between the strain and Tc in NCCO thin films and point the way to the fabrication of n-type superconducting electric field devices using ultrathin NCCO films.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2119-2124
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume75
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1994

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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