Epitaxial growth of high-temperature superconducting thin films

Abstract

We report the development of molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques for the growth of high-temperature, perovskite-like superconductors. The use of a plasma source of active oxygen allows the in situ growth of such layers. Some of the films grown this way were superconducting as grown. Smooth films exhibiting streaked reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns, were obtained by using shuttering to kinetically control the growth process. We also report initial results of experiments in which kinetic control is used to layer metastable, nonequilibrium structures in the bismuthstrontium–calcium–copper–oxide system.