Silver doping and its influence on the oxygenation during <i>in</i> <i>situ</i> growth of YBa2Cu3O7−<i>x</i> thin films

Abstract

The influence of Ag doping on both oxygenation and deoxygenation during growth of YBa2Cu3O7−x films at 700 °C by pulsed laser deposition has been studied. Experiments show that undoped and Ag-doped films grown at 200 mTorr oxygen pressure and quenched immediately after termination of growth have a superconducting transition temperature Tc of 61 and 86 K, respectively. The high Tc of 86 K obtained with quenched Ag-doped films is thought to be due to both enhanced oxygen incorporation and reduced deoxygenation associated with Ag doping. These results show that Ag-doped YBa2Cu3O7−x films could be crucial for realizing devices based on multilayer structures.