FABRICATION OF YBA2CU3OY THIN-FILMS ON TEXTURED BUFFER LAYERS GROWN BY PLASMA BEAM ASSISTED DEPOSITION

A new technique named plasma beam assisted deposition (PBAD) is propos ed to grow in-plane textured yttria-stabilised zirconia (YSZ) thin fil ms on polycrystalline metallic substrates as a buffer layer for deposi tion of YBa3Cu3Oy (YBCO) films. The in-plane texturing of the YBCO fil ms obtained is decisively governed by that of the YSZ buffer layer on which the YBCO grows. Because of a reduction of the weak links at high -angle grain;boundaries: a marked increase in the critical current den sity J(c) is observed with improved texturing of the YBCO films. So fa r, it has been demonstrated that YBCO films with J(c) above 10(5) A cm (-2) (77 K, 0 T) can be successfully deposited by a laser ablation tec hnique. The PBAD process proposed here is found to be valuable technol ogically because it offers a very convenient method to grow textured f ilms on long tape or large area substrates. An attempt was also made t o grow textured films simultaneously on one side or both sides of vari ous pieces of tape substrates. The results indicate that PBAD is one p otential technique for future large scale application of YBCO films.