ARTIFICIALLY-LAYERED AND METASTABLE THIN-FILM MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT UTILIZING PULSED-LASER DEPOSITION

Pulsed-laser deposition has been utilized to grow metastable and artif icially-layered copper oxide thin-film materials. Single-crystal thin films of Ca1 - xSrxCuO2, the 'infinite layer' parent compound for the high temperature superconductors, have been grown over the composition range 0.15 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 1.0 utilizin g a single-target co-deposition growth scheme. These Ca1 - xSrxCuO2 th in films are very high-quality single crystals of the tetragonal, infi nite layer phase with extremely narrow diffraction peaks, complete in- plane crystalline alignment with the (100) SrTiO3 substrate, and virtu ally no impurity phases present. In addition, superlattice structures, consisting of SrCuO2 and (Sr,Ca)CuO2 layers in the tetragonal, 'infin ite layer' crystal structure, have been grown by pulsed-laser depositi on. These results greatly enhance the possibility of developing new, a rtificially-layered high temperature superconducting phases via pulsed -laser deposition. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science S.A.