Raman characterization of YBa2CU3O7-delta thin films

Two aspects of Raman characterization of YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) thin films are reported in this paper. First, the quantitative characterization of ultra-thin YBCO films, which is difficult due to leakage of spectral features from the substrate. By subtracting these features, clean vibrational spectra of YBCO films with thickness down to 12 nm have been obtained. Polarized Raman spectra of (001), (110) and (103) oriented epitaxial YBCO films have been measured and compared with each other and with the predictions based on known Raman tensor components. In this way, the orientation of these epitaxial films can be easily and nondestructively determined.