Growth of BaSnO3 doped ErBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films for high JC applications

BaSnO3 (BSO)-doped ErBa2Cu3O7-delta (ErBCO) films are grown by a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method on (STO) Substrates for realizing high J(C) in a magnetic field. ErBCO ceramics with BSO-contents of 0-8.0% are used as targets. From XRD analyses of the obtained films, 00l reflections of ErBCO are indicating that the films are c-axis oriented. BSO grew in a shape of nanorod in all ErBCO films. BSO-doped ErBCO films showed higher J(C) than non-doped ErBCO films in magnetic fields, suggesting that BSO nanorods plays a role of pinning centers. On the other hand, the J(C) properties depended strongly on the concentration of BSO-doped in ErBCO films: a 4 wt% BSO-doped ErBCO film showed lower J(C) than that of a 2 wt% BSO-doped film. These BSO-content dependences on J(C) for ErBCO films were understood as poor alignment of ErBCO crystal grains caused by BSO doping. We believe that the optimized BSO doping content into ErBCO films for high J(C) is around 2 wt% among the obtained films. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.