Tailored superlattices containing distinct oxide and oxycarbonate blocks grown by pulsed laser deposition

The synthesis of copper oxycarbonate superlattices comprised of two structural types that are observed in high $T_c$ superconductors was achieved using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. These artificially layered materials consist of specific numbers of alternately stacked infinite layer ${\mathrm{SrCuO}}_{\mathrm{2}}$ and oxycarbonate ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{\text{2−x}}{\mathrm{Ca}}_x{\mathrm{CuO}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{CO}}_{\mathrm{3}}$ blocks, and were grown on (110) ${\mathrm{NdGaO}}_{\mathrm{3}}$ using two targets. From x-ray diffraction, it was found that several unit cells of ${\mathrm{SrCuO}}_{\mathrm{2}}$ could be inserted between the layers of ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{\text{2−x}}{\mathrm{Ca}}_x{\mathrm{CuO}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{CO}}_{\mathrm{3}}$ . These results demonstrate that a large series of new structures combining oxycarbonate with oxide components can be obtained using a multitarget PLD system.