Epitaxial growth of solution deposited Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox films

The epitaxial growth of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O x (Bi2212) high temperature superconducting thin films was studied. The films were solution-deposited from a polymer-containing precursor onto SrTiO3 (001) substrates. Bi2212 formed an epitaxial phase with the c-axis parallel to the substrate normal and an in-plane orientation with the a-axis parallel to the SrTiO3 [110] and [\(\bar{1}\)10] directions. This phase was found to be robust with respect to small changes in stoichiometry, where the appearance of an additional BiSrCuO phase was observed. This minority phase had no major effect on the epitaxial alignment of the Bi2212 phase or the critical temperature of the thin-film sample.