Deposition of superconducting YBaCuO thin films by pseudospark ablation

Thin YBaCuO films have been deposited on ZrO2(Y) and SrTiO3 substrates by a novel ablation method, using a pulsed intense electron beam generated by a pseudospark source. Films with zero resistance around 85 K were grown at substrate temperatures of 820 °C with high reproducibility. X-ray analysis indicates highly textured growth on both substrates. Jc values were 6×106 A/cm2 at 4.2 K and 1.1×105 A/cm2 at 77 K. Because of the high simplicity of the deposition system and the variety of changeable parameters it represents an interesting alternative to existing laser ablation methods.