A Study of the Isolation Region of Planar Superconducting YBCO Structures Formed by the Master Mask Method

—The development of a new “master mask” method for the manufacture of planar structures based on a high-temperature YBCO superconductor is considered. The method involves the creation of a mask on the blank substrate and, upon deposition of YBCO, the superconducting elements are formed in preset local windows of the mask with isolation regions formed between them. Such growth conditions allow the fabrication of micron-size superconducting elements with excellent electrophysical parameters and a smooth su-rface. The influence of the parameters of the master mask of amorphous cerium oxide on the isolating properties of the resulting isolation regions during the fabrication of planar structures on sapphire and cubic zirconia substrates with epitaxial cerium oxide sublayers has been studied.