Spectroscopic study of plasma-enhanced organometallic chemical vapor deposition for superconducting thin film formation

Plasma-enhanced organometallic chemical vapor deposition process has been developed to prepare high Tc superconducting films. The volatile organic precursors of Y(fod)3, Ba(hfa)2, and Cu(hfa)2 were decomposed with a microwave discharge plasma. Optical emission spectroscopy was used to determine the identity of the species produced during the vaporization and decomposition process. In this process, Y, Y+, Ba, Ba+, Cu, and Cu+ species were detected. After annealing in air, the films deposited on the (100) SrTiO3 substrate had preferential orientation of the crystalline c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. The characterization of this process is discussed comparing a hollow cathode YBaCuO plasma with the laser ablation experiments published