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Oxygenation and possible etching of high T sub c superconducting films by oxygen plasma

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5246545
The use of a radio frequency (rf) excited oxygen plasma for cleaning and oxygenation of high {Tc} superconducting films at room temperature is studied by photoemission spectroscopy. Plasma oxidation at {approximately}10 mT pressure, removes contaminants like carbon and causes the Ba 5p and 4d and the 0 1s corelevels to shift to lower binding energy. Valence band spectra for an epitaxial Y{sub 2}Ba{sub 4}Cu{sub 8}O{sub 15+x} film on SrTiO{sub 3}(001) show a Fermi edge and resemble spectra presented by other groups for YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7} single crystals and epitaxial films. These films also show a sharp 0 is corelevel near 528 eV. Possible reactive ion etching of a degraded YBCO film surface is demonstrated in a series of spectra taken after successive oxygen plasma treatments. A surface contaminated with BaCO{sub 3} becomes barium deficient after the initial plasma treatment but a second plasma treatment of a substrate biased to {minus}200 V to promote sputtering produces photoemission features typical of an YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7} surface. 24 refs., 4 figs.
Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE/ER
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76CH00016; AS05-80ER10742
OSTI ID:
5246545
Report Number(s):
BNL-43119; CONF-891093--20; ON: DE90004956
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English