No Arabic abstract
Highly textured NdFeAs(O,F) thin films have been grown on ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD)-MgO/Y2O3/Hastelloy substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The oxypnictide coated conductors showed a superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of 43 K with a self-field critical current density (Jc) of 7.0 x 104 A/cm2 at 5 K, more than 20 times higher than powder-in-tube processed SmFeAs(O,F) wires. Albeit higher Tc as well as better crystalline quality than Co-doped BaFe2As2 coated conductors, in-field Jc of NdFeAs(O,F) was lower than that of Co-doped BaFe2As2. These results suggest that grain boundaries in oxypnictides reduce Jc significantly compared to that in Co-doped BaFe2As2 and, hence biaxial texture is necessary for high Jc.
We fabricated superconducting MgB2 thin films on (001) MgO substrates. The samples were prepared by magnetron rf and dc co-sputtering on heated substrates. They were annealed ex-situ for one hour at temperatures between 450{deg}C and 750{deg}C. We will show that the substrate temperature during the sputtering process and the post annealing temperatures play a crucial role in forming MgB2 superconducting thin films. We achieved a critical onset temperature of 27.1K for a film thickness of 30nm. The crystal structures were measured by x-ray diffraction.
We report on the isotropic pinning obtained in epitaxial Fe(Se,Te) thin films grown on CaF2 (001) substrate. High critical current density values larger than 1 MA/cm2 in self field in liquid helium are reached together with a very weak dependence on the magnetic field and a complete isotropy. Analysis through Transmission Electron Microscopy evidences the presence of defects looking like lattice disorder at a very small scale, between 5 and 20 nm, which are thought to be responsible for such isotropic behavior in contrast to what observed on SrTiO3, where defects parallel to the c-axis enhance pinning in that direction
We have investigated the crystal structures and superconducting properties of thin films of FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$ grown on eight different substrates. Superconductivity is not correlated with the lattice mismatch; rather it is correlated with the degree of in-plane orientation and with the lattice parameter ratio $c/a$. The best superconducting properties were observed in films on MgO and LaAlO$_3$ ($T_mathrm{c}^mathrm{zero}$ of 9.5 K). TEM observation showed that the presence or absence of an amorphous-like layer at the substrate surface plays a key role in determining the structural and superconducting properties of the grown films.
Superconducting epitaxial FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin films were prepared on SrTiO3 (001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The high purity of the phase, the quality of the growth and the epitaxy were studied with different experimental techniques: X-rays diffraction, reflection high energy electron diffraction, scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The substrate temperature during the deposition was found to be the main parameter governing sample morphology and superconducting critical temperature. Films obtained in the optimal conditions show an epitaxial growth with c axis perpendicular to the film surface and the a and b axis parallel to the substrates one, without the evidence of any other orientation. Moreover, such films show a metallic behavior over the whole measured temperature range and critical temperature above 17K, which is higher than the target one.
Vortex dynamics is strongly connected with the mechanisms responsible for the photon detection of superconducting devices. Indeed, the local suppression of superconductivity by photon absorption may trigger vortex nucleation and motion effects, which can make the superconducting state unstable. In addition, scaling down the thickness of the superconducting films and/or the width of the bridge geometry can strongly influence the transport properties of superconducting films, e.g. affecting its critical current as well as its switching current into the normal state. Understanding such instability can boost the performances of those superconducting devices based on nanowire geometries. We present an experimental study on the resistive switching in NbN and NbTiN ultra-thin films with a thickness of few nanometers. Despite both films were patterned with the same microbridge geometry, the two superconducting materials show different behaviors at very low applied magnetic fields. A comparison with other low temperature superconducting materials outlines the influence of geometry effects on the superconducting transport properties of these materials particularly useful for devices applications.