Dependence of the structural, electrical and magnetic properties of the superconductive YBCO thin films on the deposition rate

In this study, YBCO thin films on single crystal LaAlO3 (100) substrates have been grown using DC inverted cylindrical magnetron sputtering technique and the effect of the deposition rate on these films is investigated. Three different deposition rates are used to produce superconducting YBCO thin films with 150 nm of thickness on (100) LaAlO3 single crystal substrate at 780 0C. The samples are analyzed in detail by means of XRD, R-T, χ-T, M-H and AFM characterizations and also the critical current densities (Jc) are derived from the magnetic hysteresis curves using the modified Bean formula [1]. The critical current density at 50 K was found to be in the range of 3.107 A/m2 to 8. 107 A/m2 with a deposition rate between 2nm/min and 1.2nm/min. A correlation has been obtained so that as the film deposition rate increases, the surface smoothness and crystalline quality of the films significantly deteriorate, resulting in a significant decrease in Jc.