AFM and complementary XRD measurements of in situ grown YBCO films obtained by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract We report an optimized kinetic regime to grow in situ YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) films on LaAlO3 substrates, by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), which is technically more advantageous than the usual one. Atomic force microscope (AFM) pictures show that the in situ grown YBCO films have much smoother surfaces than the post-deposition annealed YBCO films. The influence of the substrate's surface quality and that of the pulsed laser fluence used in the deposition process on the surface quality and on the critical temperature (TC) of the in situ YBCO films are described. For measurements we utilized the atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques.