Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol.404, 69-74, 2014
Continuous change of supersaturation and evolution of oriented structure in dipping LPE process of YBa2Cu3O7-delta
Liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) of YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) films was performed by vertical dipping along both the [0 0 1] and the [1 1 0] directions of (1 1 0) NdGaO3 (NGO) substrates. Remarkably, an evolution of oriented structure horn c-axis to a-axis, corresponding to the supersaturation (sigma) change horn high to low level, was explicitly observed on a single NGO substrate. Distinctively, creeping along the [0 0 1] direction and forming a low-sigma-related a-oriented film with a crack-free macrostructure, the liquid presented a strong anisotropic wettability with the NGO substrate. Most importantly, this work provides a unique method to achieve high-quality a-axis YBCO LPE films, which are potentially appropriate for Josephson junction devices. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Supersaturated solutions;Growth from solutions;Liquid phase epitaxy;Oxide superconducting materials;Cuprates