LANIO3 AND CU3GE CONTACTS TO YBA2CU3O7-X FILMS

Metallization of high-T-c superconductors using low resistivity metal oxides and Cu-Ge alloys has been investigated on high quality pulsed l aser deposited epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) films. Epitaxial LaNiO3 (L NO) thin films have been grown on YBCO films at 700 degrees C using pu lsed laser deposition. The specific resistivity of LNO was measured to be 50 mu Omega-cm at 300K which decreases to 19 mu Omega-cm at 100K i ndicating good metallicity of the LNO films. The contact resistance of LNO-YBCO thin film interface was found to be reasonably low (of the o rder of 10(-4)Omega-cm(2) at 77K) which suggests that the interface fo rmed between the two films is quite clean and LNO can emerge as a prom ising metal electrode-material to YBCO films. A preliminary investigat ion related to the compatibility of Cu3Ge alloy as a contact metalliza tion material to YBCO films is discussed. The usage of other oxide bas ed low resistivity materials such as SrRuO3 (SRO) and SrVO3 (SVO) for metallization of high-T-c YBCO superconductor films is also discussed.