Etching of screw dislocations in YBa2Cu3O7 films with a scanning tunneling microscope

Abstract

We report on the systematic unrolling of screw dislocations with the scanning tunneling microscope at the surfaces of sputtered, c-axis oriented YBa2Cu3O7 films. The etching is dominated by field induced evaporation and not by mechanical milling of the surface. The process also enables the controlled drawing of nanometer scale grooves on the film surface.