Strong pinning at high growth rates in Rare Earth Barium Cuprate

J. Feighan; M. H. Lai; A. Kursumovic; D. Zhang; H. Wang; J. H. Lee; S Moon; J. L. MacManus-Driscoll

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arXiv · 2011.01116

Strong pinning at high growth rates in Rare Earth Barium Cuprate

J. Feighan·M. H. Lai·A. Kursumovic·D. Zhang·H. Wang·J. H. Lee·S Moon·J. L. MacManus-Driscoll

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Abstract

We present a simple liquid assisted processing (LAP) method, to be used in-situ during pulsed laser deposition growth to give both rapid growth rates (50 Hz deposition leading to >250 nm/min with a single plume) and strong pinning (improved x 5-10 over plain standard YBCO films grown at similar rates). Achieving these two important features simultaneously has been a serious bottleneck to date. LAP enhances the kinetics of the film growth so that good crystalline perfection can be achieved at up to 60 x faster growth rates than normal, while also enabling artificial pinning centres to be self assembled into fine nanocolumns. In addition, LAP allows for RE mixing (80% of Y with 20% of Yb, Sm, or Yb+Sm), creating effective point-like disorder within the REBCO lattice and which leads to strongly improved pinning at 30 K and below. Overall, LAP is a simple method which could be adopted by other in-situ physical or vapour deposition methods (i.e PLD, MOCVD, evaporation, etc) to significantly enhance both growth rate and performance.

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J. Feighan, M. H. Lai, A. Kursumovic, D. Zhang, H. Wang, J. H. Lee, S Moon, J. L. MacManus-Driscoll. 2020-11-02. Strong pinning at high growth rates in Rare Earth Barium Cuprate. https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.01116

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