Growth of Non-c-Axis BSCCO Superconductor-Insulator Heterostructures

We attempted to grow non-c axis heterostructures of substrate-IS type with S = BSCCO and I = (Sr,Ca)CuO₂. A careful selection of the films-substrate relationship is revealed as a key condition toward growth of layered heterostructures with different orientations. However this powerful principle, that is also a mandatory condition, is not sufficient in order to obtain high quality structures. The reasons are discussed looking for further solutions. Our comparative analysis is expanded to other heterostructures we reported in other works trying to reveal some of the more general problems of the non c-axis heterostructures growth.