Fabrication and characterization of Y-Ba-Cu-O thin-films on stainless-steel substrates

Pulsed laser deposition has been employed for fabricating in-situ Ag buffer layers and as-deposited thin-film YBCO superconductors on stainless steel substrates using Ag buffer layers. Our deposition chamber provides the capability of rotating four bulk materials separately into the path of an excimer laser beam. This approach allows in-situ laser deposition of several materials without exposing the intermediate layers to the atmosphere. The deposition parameters for Ag buffer layers have been optimized and are significantly different from those employed for YBCO. Laser deposited in-situ Ag buffer layers were found to improve the resistive transition behavior for superconducting YBCO films on stainless steel, resulting in as-deposited Tc(R = ) at 84K. The critical current density Jc was measured to be approximately 103 A/cm2 at 67 K