Pulsed-laser deposition of Pr2−xCexCuO4−y thin films and the effect of high-temperature post-annealing

Abstract High-quality epitaxial Pr 2− x Ce x CuO 4− y thin films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition using N 2 O reactive gas. The deposition parameters for the films were optimized for each of the 11 investigated Ce concentrations. The optimized thin films show sharp superconducting transitions in AC magnetic susceptibility and electrical resistivity. We find that Ce can be incorporated up to a concentration of x =0.23 without appearance of impurity phases. We also present and discuss the structural and superconducting properties of our films after a high-temperature post-annealing treatment claimed by Brinkmann et al. to reduce Pr 2− x Ce x CuO 4− y single crystals more effectively. We did not observe bulk superconductivity in films with x ≤0.10 under any annealing conditions.