Transport properties of epitaxial BSCCO films grown on untwinned NdGaO3 substrates

Epitaxial films of Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2O8 have been grown on NdGaO3, twin-free substrates by liquid phase epitaxy. The films have high crystallographic quality and thickness of about 1-mu-m. The resistivity curve is metallic, with a sharp (2.9 K wide) resistive transition and zero resistivity at 84.5 K. The critical current density at 77.3 K is 10(4) A/cm2, extrapolating to about 5 10(5) A/cm2 at 4.2 K. The latter value is more than one order of magnitude higher than that obtained using LaGaO3 substrates, although lower than the one measured on films grown on SrTiO3