Potential of Ndcecuo Thin Films for Electronic Applications

Abstract

The electron-doped superconductor Nd1.85Ceou5CuO,Mi has a Tc of 23K, which is lower than that of other cuprate superconductors, but still well within the reach of commercial cryocoolers. Its surface is much more stable than that of YBCO, and it has a longer in-plane coherence length (70Ä). Epitaxial thin films of NdCeCuO can be made by the process of laser ablation with lower particle densities than YBCO or BSCCO films, and the use of N20 during deposition has recently allowed the deposition of high quality films with improved Tc and transition widths. We report further investigations in two directions: deposition on microwave friendly substrates such as LaA103 (where RBS-channeling results are very promising) and continuation of work on films deposited on bi-crystals, started by P.Chaudhari (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center). For the latter, we study those grain misorientations where no Josephson current is seen, and look for signs of quasi-particle tunneling. © 1993 IEEE