COMPOSITIONAL AND STRUCTURAL STUDIES OF ION-BEAM DEPOSITED HIGH-TC OXIDE-FILMS BY SNMS AND REM

Polycrystalline YBaCu-oxide films were prepared by argon or oxygen ion beam sputtering of ceramic superconducting targets at 1 keV on sapphire and SrTiO3 substrates. The influence of the bombarding species, the substrate material and temperature, and the post-deposition annealing treatment on the film composition was investigated with secondary neutral mass spectrometry (SNMS). In particular, oxygen ion beam sputter deposition as well as argon beam deposition at high substrate temperatures were found to result in a comparable enhancement of the Y and Ba incorporation. REM studies showed that post-annealed films switched from epitaxially ordered to polycrystalline structures within a narrow range of film thicknesses around 8000 angstrom.