Y-BA-CU-O HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTOR THIN-FILM PREPARATION BY PULSED LASER DEPOSITION AND RF-SPUTTERING - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY

High temperature superconductor thin films of high quality have successfully been deposited on oxide substrates with good lattice match to the films by a variety of different techniques. Pulsed laser deposition [PLD] and sputtering have been appeared to be the most popular methods at least in the scope of thin film preparation for basic research and development. Both methods do not require any post deposition annealing steps if the conden-sation of the film is done at high substrate temperatures [e.g. 750-degrees-C] and high oxygen partial pressure [e.g. 10-200 Pa]. Films deposited by both methods using optimized preparation conditions show comparable super- conducting parameters like critical temperatures exceeding 90 K and critical currents larger than 10(6) A/cm2 at 77K. The different growth mechanisms of the films prepared by the two methods give rise to some morphological differences of the films. The advantages and disadvantages of PLD vs sputtering are discussed and specified with respect to their potential in the research area as well as in the application oriented work. Some recent developments like large area in situ deposition by sputtering, epitaxial growth of YBCO films with oriented in place c-axis by PLD and epitaxial growth of YBCO films on epitaxial buffer layers on silicon are discussed.