Superconducting and structural properties of sputtered thin films of YBa2Cu3O7−x

Abstract
We have fabricated thin films of YBa2Cu3Ox by dc triode sputtering from two metallic targets. Post‐annealing in pure O2 after sputtering resulted in superconducting films with a Tc onset as high as 89 K and a midpoint Tc of 75 K. We report preliminary results of films deposited on sapphire, MgO and sol‐gel coatings of ZrO2 on sapphire, with and without buffer layers of Ag. The chemical and physical structures of these films were analyzed by using several x‐ray diffraction techniques and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy.