Pulsed laser deposition and characterization of perovskite thin ®lms on various substrates

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a unique tool to grow high quality thin ®lms of complex composition. In recent years it was demonstrated by several groups that PLD is capable of depositing material over application relevant substrate sizes with good uniformity. In this contribution YBCO thin ®lms and buffer layers were deposited by a special PLD setup on substrates as large as 7 cm 20 cm. For this purpose the UV laser light is focussed to an 8 cm line on cylindrical targets while the substrate is scanned perpendicular to the line focus. Different kinds of substrates (SrTiO3, MgO, LaAlO3 and Sapphire) were coated with YBCO. Two important points of the presented PLD-setup will be discussed in detail: the way of substrate heating and the variation of the angle between the incident laser beam and the target surface (`wobblingʹ). The structural and electrical properties of the deposited YBCO thin ®lms were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and inductive measurements of the critical current density jc. Furthermore, PLD was used to deposit ferroelectric (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3 (PLZT) thin ®lms on highgrade steel Hastelloy. This polycrystalline alloy is suitable as substrate and electrode material as well. The deposited ®lms were characterized with respect to their structural, topological and ferroelectric properties. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.