Low-cost combustion chemical vapor deposition of epitaxial buffer layers and superconductors

Abstract

A new low-cost, open-atmosphere deposition technique, combustion chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) is used to deposit epitaxial buffer layers and high-temperature superconductors on oxide single-crystal substrates. The CCVD process has the potential for manufacturing buffer layers and superconductors onto textured metal substrates in a continuous reel-to-reel production. CCVD does not use vacuum equipment or reaction chambers required by conventional techniques, while its coating quality rivals and even exceeds that of conventional methods. Compounds being studied with the CCVD process include the buffer layers cerium oxide (CeO/sub 2/), yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), strontium titanate (SrTiO/sub 3/), lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO/sub 3/), yttria (Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/), and ytterbium oxide (Yb/sub 2/O/sub 3/) and two rare earth superconductors, YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-x/, (YBCO) and YbBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-x/ (YbBCO).