|
Description:
|
Bismuth -Strontium -Calcium -Copper -Oxide (BSCCO ) compounds are an important family of compounds that have one of the highest transition temperatures among all high -temperature superconductors . The compound is known to exist in three distinct phases , commonly referred to as the 2201 , 2212 and 2223 phases . Of these three phases , the 2212 and 2223 phases are the most important , as their transition temperature is higher than the boiling point of liquid nitrogen . It is desirable to produce the compound in thin film form , as the bulk samples are normally polycrystalline .
This thesis compares thin films produced by two techniques for depositing BSCCO in order to understand the effect of various processing parameters on the final quality of the thin films . Thin films were grown by flash evaporation at Texas A &M University , and by pulsed laser deposition (PLD ) at the University of Wollongong , Australia . The latter of these techniques is widely used for growing thin films of various compounds . Single -phase 2212 films were grown on a MgO substrate using the pulsed laser deposition technique from commercially available 2212 powder . The effect of annealing on the thin films was also studied . |