The effects of the post-annealing temperature on the growth mechanism of Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2O8+ ? thin films produced on MgO (1 0 0) single crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD)

The effects of post-annealing temperature were investigated on Bi 2Sr2Ca1Cu2O8+ ? thin films deposited on MgO (1 0 0) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The structural and superconducting properties of the films have been determined by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), temperature dependent resistivity (R-T), and DC magnetization measurements. The films which were deposited at 600 C were post-annealed in an atmosphere of a gas mixture of Ar (93%) and O2 (7%), at temperature ranging between 800 and 880 C. This resulted in films which exhibited a single phase of 2212 with a high crystallinity (FWHM ? 0.16) and texturing along the c-axis, perpendicular to the plane of the substrate. An optimum temperature of 860 C was found for the post-annealing thermal treatment. The critical temperature, TC, of the films was measured as 82 K and the critical current density, JC, was calculated as 3 × 107 A/cm2 for the film annealed at 860 C. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work is supported by Research Fund of Cukurova University , Adana, Turkey, under Grant No. FEF2011D20 . The authors gratefully acknowledge the Material Research Center of Izmir Institute of Technology, for their kind help and to the staff members of the Pulsed Laser Deposition Laboratory for the preparation and analysis of our films