EOS Annual Meeting 2010 TOM 4: Micro-Optics

Time-resolved optical emission analysis and growth of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+ thin films

J. C. de Vero, J.F. Gabayno, J. R. Vitug, R.V. Sarmago, W.O. Garcia National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines- Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines

Summary
Time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy (TROES) was performed during infrared pulsed laser deposition of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+ thin films. TROES reported the presence of excited neutrals, ionized and excited species of BiSrCaCuO plasma. Smooth, highly caxis oriented films were obtained after heat treatment. Introduction Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+ (Bi-2212) is one of the most promising high- Tc superconducting (HTS) compounds used in superconducting interference devices, Josephson junctionbased electronics and in terahertz devices. Pulsed laser deposition of HTSs usually utilizes an ultraviolet (UV) laser to excite the target providing the deposition flux, the substrate is heated to a relatively high temperature and the deposition occurs in an oxidizing environment. We are able to prepare smooth and highly c-axis oriented thin films using infrared pulsed laser deposition (IR- PLD) with post heat treatments [1]. However, the films were apparently under-doped. In this paper, we report time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy during IR PLD process of Bi-2212 and the heat treatment used to improve the transition temperature,Tc. Discussions A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with an output of 1064 nm operating at 10 Hz and 8 ns pulse duration was used in this study. All the films were prepared in a stainless steel vacuum chamber with a base pressure of 4x10-2 mbar. The target placed 30 mm from the substrate was rotated for uniform ablation. The laser fluence on the BSCCO target is fixed at 5.5 J/cm2. The plasma radiation was collected by a 100 mm lens towards a fiber optic bundle coupled to a computer-controlled streak camera system. The scattered laser beam was prevented from entering the monochromator by placing an IR filter before the lens. The Q-switch sync out of the laser was used to trigger the image intensifier. The Bi-2212 films were deposited on (100) oriented MgO substrate and undergo series of heat treatments in ambient air. The heat treatment includes rapid quenching at 9500C for 15 min, and annealed at 8500C for 2 hours. Figure 1 shows the time resolved emission lines obtained by TROES from the laserproduced BiSrCaCuO plasma. The emission lines correspond to neutral, ionized and excited species of the composite target (Table 1). Among the tabulated spectral lines, large amount of neutral Sr (I) were observed. The transient behavior of the plasma is shown in the inset. The intensity increases rapidly followed by a much slower decay until the intensity drops to 10 % of the peak after about 1.3 s. As each atomic transition only lasts for several nanoseconds, the long plasma lifetime can results into simultaneous interaction of the excited species, to the excitation laser and to the

ISBN 978-3-00-030509-2

26 - 29 October 2010, Paris, France

EOS Annual Meeting 2010 TOM 4: Micro-Optics

background environment [2, 3]. The laser produced plasma temperature and electron density were also calculated to be approximately 12x1017 cm-3 and 770 meV, respectively. Relatively flat and smooth film surface morphology was obtained after heat treatment [1]. Spheroidal particulates inherent to pulsed laser deposition remain even with heat treatment on film surface. EDX measurement on these films confirmed that the film stoichiometry is Bi-2212. The average film thickness is around 9 m. Resistance vs. temperature measurement shows that the critical temperature was improved from around 58 K to 80 K [1]. This suggests that rapid quenching and shorter annealing time improve the electrical characteristics of the film.
Table 1: Spectral lines laser produced BiSrCaCuO
8000

Elements
1.0

Spectral Lines (nm) 571.83, 612.60 455.81, 507.93 460.41, 481.23,487.09, 496.33, 545.37, 548.35, 550.48, 552.26, 640.50, 654.63, 661.81, 707.28, 730.89 526.48, 558.86, 612.48, 616.39, 616.51 645.90 471.64 510.55, 515.28, 521.42, 521.71, 578.04 464.54, 610.48, 687.24 585.10, 664.45 615.87 650.06

Bi (I)
0.8

Bi (II) Sr (I) Ca (I)

6000

Normalized Intensity

0.6

Relative Intensity

0.4

0.2

4000
0.0 1 2 3 4

Ca (II) Ca (III)
Time (us)

Cu (I) Cu (II) Cu (III) O (I) O (II)

2000

0 450 475

500 525 550 575 600

625 650 675

700

725

750 775

Wavelength (nm)
Figure 1: Time-resolved emission linesof laser produced BiSrCaCuO plasma. Inset temporal profile

Conclusions We used time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy to characterize the properties of laser produced plasma generated during the IR PLD of Bi-2212. Our results suggest that tuning the laser produced plasma properties into the above conditions allows us to grow films of high quality. Therefore, it is important that plasma dynamics are correlated to thin film properties. References [1] J. C. de Vero, J. F. Gabayno, W.O. Garcia, R.V. Sarmago, Physica C 470 (2010) 149154. [2] A. Belkind, W. Zhu, J Lopez, and K. Becker, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 15 (2006) S17-S25. [3] H.S. Kwok, H.S. Kim, D.H. Kim, W. P. Shen, X.W. Sun, R.F. Xiao, Appl.Surf. Sci 109 (1997) 595-600.

ISBN 978-3-00-030509-2

26 - 29 October 2010, Paris, France