Initial stage in the liquid phase epitaxy of Nd123 of films: dependence ofgrowth rate on process parameter

Coated conductors are promising candidates for applications. In order to ap ply the liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) technique to the coated conductor proces s, some buffer layers are necessary to prevent reaction with the substrate and to provide an appropriate texture for the single crystalline growth of the superconducting films. On NiO buffer layers, Ni saturated Nd123 films g rown by LPE are suitable as a second buffer layer for the growth of superco nducting Sm123 or Y123 films. The buffer layer should be as thin as possibl e from the engineering point of view. However, Nd123 has a much higher grow th rate in comparison with Y123. This means that it is difficult to control the growth rate of the Nd123 system. Especially, as the growth of Nd123 de pends strongly on the process parameters e.g. supersaturation and oxygen pa rtial pressure, we measured the supersaturation during the experiments and determined their influence on the growth rate and the characteristics of th e films in order to control the thickness of the second buffer layer. (C) 2 001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.