Superconducting and non-superconducting oxide multilayers

An overview of perovskite-related metallic oxides and their thin films is presented with an emphasis on the epitaxial growth of LaNiO3 thin films on a variety of substrates. Using these films as metallic barrier layers, YBa2Cu3O7−δ/LaNiO3/YBa2Cu3O7−δ/SrTiO3 trilayer superconductor-normal metal (metallic oxide)-superconductor junctions have been fabricated. The results indicate that the coherence length of electrons in the normal metal LaNiO3 region is of the order of 125 Å. Besides, the growth of a-axis-oriented LaBa2Cu2.8Ni0.2O7+δ metallic thin films is reported which can be used as a promising template to grow a-axis-oriented overlayers required preferably in the fabrication of multilayer devices.