Growth of BaSnO₃ doped ErBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ thin films for high J_C applications

BaSnO₃ (BSO)-doped ErBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (ErBCO) films are grown by a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method on SrTiO₃ (STO) substrates for realizing high J_C in a magnetic field. ErBCO ceramics with BSO-contents of 0-8.0 wt% are used as targets. From XRD analyses of the obtained films, 0 0 l reflections of ErBCO are observed, indicating that the films are c-axis oriented. BSO grew in a shape of nanorod in all ErBCO films. The BSO-doped ErBCO films showed higher J_C than non-doped ErBCO films in magnetic fields, suggesting that BSO nanorods plays a role of pinning centers. On the other hand, the J_C properties depended strongly on the concentration of BSO-doped in ErBCO films; a 4 wt% BSO-doped ErBCO film showed lower J_C than that of a 2 wt% BSO-doped film. These BSO-content dependences on J_C for ErBCO films were understood as poor alignment of ErBCO crystal grains caused by BSO doping. We believe that the optimized BSO doping content into ErBCO films for high J_C is around 2 wt% among the obtained films.