Improved microstructure and enhanced low-fieldJcin (Y0.67Eu0.33)Ba2Cu3O7−δfilms

This paper reports a study on mixed rare-earth barium–copper oxide superconducting films (Y0.67Eu0.33)Ba2Cu3O7−δ of different thicknesses grown on single-crystal SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to investigate film crystallinity, surface morphology and microstructure. Critical current density in self-field as a function of film thickness and in an applied magnetic field as a function of field strength and direction were also measured. The results show high quality (Y0.67Eu0.33)Ba2Cu3O7−δ films with a smoother and denser surface morphology compared to that of pure YBa2Cu3O7−δ. A thickness-dependent self-field critical current density quantitatively similar to that of pure YBa2Cu3O7−δ was observed, which suggests that the microstructural evolution in terms of increasing surface roughness and microporosity as well as crystallinity degradation is not likely to be playing a critical role in the form of the dependence. (Y0.67Eu0.33)Ba2Cu3O7−δ films also exhibit improved magnetic field performance at low fields over a wide range of orientations in the intermediate angle region, indicating that probable additional random pinning sites were introduced by the substitution of europium in one-third of yttrium sites.