Y-BA-CU-O HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTOR THIN-FILM PREPARATION BY PULSED-LASER DEPOSITION - RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

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) is appearing to be the most popular method at least for basic research and development. No post-annealing steps are required if the condensation of the films is done at high substrate temperatures (e.g. 750-degrees-C) and high oxygen partial pressures (e.g. 10-200 Pa). Films deposited using optimized preparation conditions show critical temperatures exceeding 90 K and critical currents larger than 10(6) A cm-2 at 77 K. In this paper the basic requirements for in-situ film growth are reviewed and some recent developments such as epitaxial growth of Y-Ba-Cu-O films with an oriented in-plane c axis by PLD and epitaxial growth of Y-Ba-Cu-O films on epitaxial buffer layers on silicon are discussed.