A nitrilo-tri-acetic-acid/acetic acid route for the deposition of epitaxial cerium oxide films as high temperature superconductor buffer layers

A water based cerium oxide precursor solution using nitrilo-tri-acetic-acid (NTA) and acetic acid as complexing agents is described in detail. This precursor solution is used for the deposition of epitaxial CeO2 layers on Ni-5at%W substrates by dip-coating. The influence of the complexation behavior on the formation of transparent, homogeneous solutions and gels has been studied. It is found that ethylenediamine plays an important role in the gelification. The growth conditions for cerium oxide films were Ar-5% gas processing atmosphere, a solution concentration level of 0.25 M, a dwell time of 60 min at 900 °C and 5–30 min at 1050 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), pole figures and spectroscopic ellipsometry were used to characterize the CeO2 films with different thicknesses. Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR–FTIR) was used to determine the carbon residue level in the surface of the cerium oxide film, which was found to be lower than 0.01%. Textured films with a thickness of 50 nm were obtained.