Ruipeng Zhao

Double-sided reel-to-reel metal-organic chemical vapor deposition system of YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films

Two-micrometer thick YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) films have been successfully deposited on both sides of LaAlO3 single crystalline substrates by using a home-made reel-to-reel metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system, which has two opposite symmetrical shower heads and a special-designed heater. This technique can simultaneously fabricate double-sided films with high deposition rate up to 500 nm/min, and lead to doubling current carrying capability of YBCO, especially for coated conductors (CCs). X-ray diffraction analysis showed that YBCO films were well crystallized and highly epitaxial with the full width at half maximum values of 0.2° ∼ 0.3° for the rocking curves of (005) YBCO and 1.0° for Φ-scans of (103) YBCO. Scanning electron microscope revealed dense, crack-free, slightly rough surface with Ba-Cu-O precipitates. The films showed critical current density (Jc, 77 K, 0 T) of about 1 MA/cm2, and overall critical current of 400 A/cm, ascribed to the double-sided structure. Our results also demon...

MOCVD-derived multilayer Gd0.5Y0.5Ba2Cu3O7−δ films based on a novel heating method

Multilayer Gd0.5Y0.5Ba2Cu3O7−δ (GdYBCO) films have been deposited by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition process on LaMnO3/epitaxial MgO/ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD)-MgO/solution deposition planarization-Y2O3-buffered Hastelloy tapes. The buffered tapes were heated by the Joule effect after applying a heating current (I h) through the Hastelloy metal substrates. For this kind of current heating method, the heating energy is transmitted from the Hastelloy metal substrate to the oxide buffer layers, thereby the surface temperature of the tape will decline with an increase in the thickness of the deposited GdYBCO film if the heating current is unchanged. Therefore, the multilayer GdYBCO film structure where I h was adjusted for each layer was adopted to make sure that the surface temperature was always high enough to deposit purely c-axis oriented GdYBCO films. With this method, four-layer 1000 nm thick GdYBCO films were successfully prepared and the critical current (I c) reached 328 A cm−1 width (77 K, 0 T), corresponding to the critical current density (J c) of 3.28 MA cm−2 (77 K, 0 T).

The preparation of high-J c Gd0.5Y0.5Ba2Cu3O7−δ thin films by the MOCVD process

A home-designed metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system has been employed to prepare high critical current density (J c) Gd0.5Y0.5Ba2Cu3O7−δ (GdYBCO) thin films on LaMnO3/epitaxial MgO/ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD)-MgO/solution deposition planarization (SDP)-Y2O3-buffered Hastelloy tapes; the thin films were directly heated by the Joule effect after applying an heating current (I h ) through the Hastelloy tapes. The effect of the mole ratio of the metal organic sources has been systematically investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses indicated that the GdYBCO films crystallized better and became denser with the increasing of the Cu/Ba ratio from 1.0 to 1.1, yielding a J c at 77 K and 0 T of 200 nm GdYBCO film increasing from 2.5 MA cm−2 to 7 MA cm−2. In addition, SEM and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) characterizations revealed that more and more outgrowths appeared and the density of the film was reduced with an increase in the Cu/Ba ratio from 1.1 to 1.2. When the I h was 26.8 A and the mole ratio of Gd(tmhd)3, Y(tmhd)3, Ba(tmhd)2 and Cu(tmhd)2 in the precursor was 0.55:0.55:2:2.2, the critical current (I c) of the deposited 200 nm-thick GdYBCO film reached a 140 A cm−1 width (77 K, 0 T), corresponding to the J c 7 MA cm−2 (77 K, 0 T).

Multi-Aperture Shower Design for the Improvement of the Transverse Uniformity of MOCVD-Derived GdYBCO Films

A multi-aperture shower design is reported to improve the transverse uniformity of GdYBCO superconducting films on the template of sputtered-LaMnO3/epitaxial-MgO/IBAD-MgO/solution deposition planarization (SDP)-Y2O3-buffered Hastelloy tapes. The GdYBCO films were prepared by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process. The transverse uniformities of structure, morphology, thickness, and performance were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), step profiler, and the standard four-probe method using the criteria of 1 μV/cm, respectively. Through adopting the multi-aperture shower instead of the slit shower, measurement by step profiler revealed that the thickness difference between the middle and the edges based on the slit shower design was well eliminated. Characterization by SEM showed that a GdYBCO film with a smooth surface was successfully prepared. Moreover, the transport critical current density (Jc) of its middle and edge positions at 77 K and self-field were found to be over 5 MA/cm2 through adopting the micro-bridge four-probe method.

The Improvement of Utilization Ratio of Metal Organic Sources for the Low Cost Preparation of MOCVD-synthesized YBCO Films based on a Self-heating Technology

We have successfully applied metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) to synthesize biaxially textured YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) superconducting films on the templates of LaMnO3/epitaxial MgO/IBAD-MgO/solution deposition planarization (SDP) Y2O3/Hastelloy tape. The YBCO films have obtained dense and smooth surface with good structure and performance. A new self-heating method, which replaced the conventional heating-wire radiation heating method, has been used to heat the Hastelloy metal tapes by us. Compared with the heating-wire radiation heating method, the self-heating method shows higher energy efficiency and lower power consumption, which has good advantage to simplify the structure of the MOCVD system. Meanwhile, the utilization ratio of metal organic sources can be increased from 6% to 20% through adopting the new self-heating method. Then the preparation cost of the YBCO films can be also greatly reduced.