Mechanism of oxygenation of YBaCuO thin films during in situ growth by cathodic sputtering: effect of atomic oxygen

Abstract The emphasis is on the study of the relationship between oxygen composition, structure and electrical and physical properties of YBaCuO thin films formed in situ at optimised conditions of sample deposition and further submitted to the different conditions of sample cooling. For this purpose the studies of oxygen content, depth concentration and of oxygen order have been carried out using nuclear reaction analysis (NRA). These results are correlated, on one hand, with the measurements of atomic composition and structure by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, XRD and TEM and on the other hand by the measurements of the electrical and physical properties T c and surface resistance R s . Moreover the mobility and the interface transfer coefficient (300–500°C) of oxygen in c -axis oriented thin films of YBaCuO, have been evaluated by in situ measurements using NRA. The fundamental and applied consequences of atomic oxygen for the mechanism of films growth is discussed.