Deposition of superconducting thin films by laser ablation processing

Superconducting thin films, approximately 1 μm thick and 1 cm2 in area, have been deposited on fused silica by ablation of the bulk material, YBa2Cu3O/sub 7-y/, using a pulsed excimer laser. The presence of superconductivity in as-deposited films was established by a novel variation of the technique of microwave absorption, in which the superconducting transition appears as a peak in the temperature dependence of the microwave response. The method is sensitive enough to allow detection of superconductivity in small (∼0.1 mg) samples and is capable of resolving multiple superconducting phases with slight differences in T/sub c/. As-deposited films have essentially the same value of T/sub c/ (94K) as the bulk material