Surface roughness and height-height correlations dependence on thickness of YBaCuO thin films

Published

April 1, 1997

Author(s)

Basil Blank, M E. Bijlsma, R. Moerman, H Rogalla, F. J. Stork, Alexana Roshko

Abstract

For high T_c superconducting multilayer applications, smooth interfaces between the individual layers are required. However, in general, e.g., YBaCuO grows in a 3D screw-dislocation or island nucleation growth mode, introducing a surface roughness. In this contribution we study the surface layer roughness as a function of different depostion techniques as well as deposition parameters. Special attention will be paid to the increase in film thickness. For these studies we used scanning probe microscopy. From these experiments, we obtained an island density decreasing with a square root dependence on the film thickness. Furthermore, height-height correlations indicate that the film growth can be described by a ballistic growth process, with very limited effective surface diffusion. The correlationlengths ξ are on the order of the island size, inferring that the island size forms the mean diffusion barrier. This results in a representation of non-correlated islands, which can be considered as autonomous systems.

Citation

Journal of Alloys and Compounds

Volume

251

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

superconductors, surface roughness, YBaCuO thin films

Citation

Blank, B. , Bijlsma, M. , Moerman, R. , Rogalla, H. , Stork, F. and Roshko, A. (1997), Surface roughness and height-height correlations dependence on thickness of YBaCuO thin films, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=30197 (Accessed October 18, 2025)