Ion-assisted pulsed-laser deposition for the fabrication of Y-BaCuO multilayer structures using oriented intermediate layers of YSZ and CeO2

One of the most significant recent applications of laser ablation is pulsed laser deposition (PLD), a powerful new technology for fabricating unique thin film compositions and structures. Ion-assisted PLD (IAPLD) enhances the capabilities of this technology by providing oriented thin-film structures on amorphous and randomly-ordered polycrystalline substrates. IAPLD is particularly well-suited for fabricating multilayer thin film structures suitable for high temperature superconducting multi-chip modules. We have fabricated such structures on 5.0 μm SiO2 dielectric layers using IAPLD yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) layers, obtaining critical current densities as high as 3 × 105 A/cm2 at 77 K. We have also constructed YBCO/IAPLD-YSZ/SiO2/YSZ/YBCO/CeO2/YSZ and YBCO/IAPLD-YSZ/amorphous-YSZ/YBCO/CeO2/YSZ multilayers. In addition, we are working on IAPLD of oriented CeO2 layers to improve the YBCO critical current densities.