Enhancement of growth and structure properties of YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin layers by in situ incorporation of gold nano-clusters

For most hetero-epitactic growth techniques, structural defects due to the lattice misfit, namely tilts, precipitates or holes, turn out to be limiting factors for the successful fabrication of multilayer systems. A new approach of an in situ growth technique dealing with this problem by incorporation of gold nano-clusters is examined. Therefore, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of a high-TC YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) layer onto a strontium titanate (STO) template with a temporary interlayer of gold with a well-defined film thickness is investigated. Within this process, the gold interlayer shows nano-clustering behavior. Effects on the properties of structure like crystallographic or surface features of the ablated YBCO layer by variation of the film thickness of the gold and YBCO layers are presented. Moreover, distribution and clustering behavior of the crystallized gold nano-particles as well as the basic superconducting properties of the layer system are analyzed.