Vortex dynamics in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-thin films in the presence of columnar defects

With heavy ion irradiation we create continous amorphous columnar defects in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-thin films. With regard to a reliable comparison of irradiation effects three of four identical striplines on the same samples were exposed to different irradiation procedures. We performed irradiations as well parallel as under different angles with respect to the film $$\vec c$$ -axis. Beside an enlarged normal state resistivity after irradiation the films suffer a Tc-reduction proportional to the volume of the damaged material. The activation energy ascertained from resistive transitions shows best enhancement for magnetic field values close to the matching field. Measurements of the transport crit…

Magnetotransport properties of epitaxial - and -oriented CeSb thin films

Abstract We present the electronic magnetotransport properties of (1 0 0) - and (1 1 1) -oriented CeSb thin films. The samples were grown epitaxially by molecular beam epitaxy onto sapphire (1 1 2 0) and (0 0 0 1) substrates. The temperature-dependent resistivity is in full correspondence with the behaviour known from bulk material. For (1 0 0) -oriented films the analysis of the temperature and magnetic field-dependent magnetoresistivity results in a H/T phase diagram analogous to that of bulk samples. For (1 1 1) -oriented films slight deviations were observed. In Hall-effect measurements of (1 0 0) -oriented samples a sign change of the Hall coefficient occurred which is in contrast to m…

Tunneling into epitaxial UPd2Al3 thin films

Abstract UPd2Al3–AlOx–Pb Giaever-type tunneling junctions were prepared employing an in vacuo process. The high junction quality is evident by the observation of the well-known superconducting density of states of the Pb counter electrode. For HPbc2

Transversal thermovoltages of (1 1 9) Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ thin films on vicinal (1 1 0) SrTiO3 substrates

Abstract Biaxial textured (1 1 9) oriented Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ thin films were fabricated by DC-Magnetron sputtering on vicinal (1 1 0) SrTiO 3 substrates. The crystal orientation and stochiometry of the films were obtained from precise X-ray diffraction measurements in four-circle geometry. According to anisotropic transport measurements, the superconducting transition temperature is approximately 47 K and the normal state resistivities along two perpendicular paths differ by a factor of 13.5. Transversal thermoelectric effects were investigated by measuring thermovoltages transverse to temperature gradients parallel to the surface normal induced by pulsed laser irradiation. At room tem…

Controlling the intralayer structure of Co/Pt superlattices

Abstract The effect of the surface quality of MgO (1 1 1) substrates seeded by a 3 nm thick Pt layer on the intralayer and interlayer structure of Co/Pt (1 1 1) superlattices was investigated. The superlattices were grown by DC magnetron sputtering. Pre-growth processing of the MgO shows that intensive polishing using a specific H 2 O/SiO 2 suspension prior to growth is mandatory for obtaining long-range structural coherence in the films. The comparison between superlattices grown on re-polished and as-supplied substrates shows that the substrate treatment enhances the crystalline in-plane orientation and suppresses abc / acb twin formation. Magnetization measurements were performed using t…

MgO surface microstructure and crystalline coherence of Co/Pt superlattices

We report the growth of Co/Pt(111) superlattices sputtered onto MgO(111) substrates of different surface quality. Long-range structural coherence in the Pt-seed layers and the superlattices could only be obtained on specially re-polished substrates. In seed layers and superlattices grown on miscut re-polished substrates suppression of abc versus acb stacking was observed.

Preparation and x-ray pole-figure characterization of DC-sputtered Bi-2201, Bi-2212 and Bi-2223 thin films

Thin films of the three members of the superconducting series , n = 1,2,3, were prepared by diode sputtering. X-ray characterization shows that all the films are single phase and c-axis oriented and in addition they are epitaxially grown. The latter is found by x-ray pole-figure measurements taken with a four-circle diffractometer. These are emphasized in this work. AC susceptibility measurements show that, while the 2201 films are not superconducting until 4 K, the transition temperatures of the 2212 films are 82 K - 90 K and of the 2223 films 84 K - 89 K.

Transport properties of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ Bicrystal Grain Boundary Josephson Junctions and SQUIDs

Josephson junctions and SQUIDs on 36.8° SrTiO 3 bicrystal substrates were prepared from epitaxial Bi 2 Sr 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10+δ thin films with critical temperatures around 95K. The current-voltage characteristics are well described by the resistively and capacitively shunted junction model. I c R n products of 50μV at 77K and 0.7mV at 4.2K have been reached. The I c (B) dependence is symmetric to B = 0 with an I c suppression of 90% in the first minimum. Nevertheless it turns out, that the junctions are inhomogeneous on a μm scale. SQUID modulations observed at 78K indicate a flux-voltage transfer function of 2.7μV/Φ 0 at this temperature.

Length-scale-dependent vortex-antivortex unbinding in epitaxialBi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δfilms

The supercurrent transport properties of epitaxial ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}{\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{8+\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$ films in zero applied magnetic field were investigated in a temperature interval of \ensuremath{\approx}20 K below the mean-field critical temperature ${T}_{c0}.$ The modification of the shape of the $I\ensuremath{-}V$ curves observed by varying the temperature was explained in terms of vortex-fluctuation-induced layer decoupling and vortex-antivortex unbinding, revealing a strong probing-length dependence. The change of the effective dimensionality of thermally excited vortices involved in the dissipation process leads to the appearance of …

Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ based Josephson junctions and SQUIDs

Josephson junctions and SQUIDs on SrTiO3 bicrystal substrates were prepared from epitaxial Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ thin films with critical temperatures around 95K. The current-voltage characteristics are well described by the resistively and capacitively shunted junction model.I c R n products of 50μV at 77K and 0.7m V at 4.2K have been reached. TheI c (B) dependence is symmetric toB=0 with anI c suppression of 90% in the first minimum. Nevertheless it turns out, that the junctions are inhomogeneous on a μm scale. The flux-voltage transfer function of a SQUID reached 2.7μV/Ф0 at 78K.

Josephson junctions and SQUIDs based on artificial grain boundaries in Bi 2 Sr 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 10 -thin films

ABSTRACT High quality thin films of Bi2 Sr Ca2 Cu3 0 with critical temperatures of 95 K were used to prepare grainboundary josephson junctions on commercial 36.8° SrTiOg-bicrystal substrates. IR-products of 50 pV at 77 Kand 0.7 mV at 4.2 K have been reached. For temperatures higher than 50 K the current-voltage curves of thejunctions can be well described by the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model and show no hysteresis. Fromthe hysteretic behavior at low temperature we estimate a junction capacitance of 2ljiF/cm2. The Fraunhoferpattern of the critical current in an external applied field shows, that the junctions are inhomogeneous on a pm scale. The SQUID modulation of a 30 x 40 pm2 w…

Step-Edge Induced Anisotropic Domain-Wall Propagation

We report the observation of anisotropic domain-wall propagation in ultrathin magnetic films with perpendicular anisotropy. A controlled density of step edges was introduced which allowed us to quantify its influence on the domain-wall pinning. For a sawtooth arrangement of the step edges the corresponding wall movement resulted in triangular shaped domains. All aspects of this anisotropic domain-wall evolution could be reproduced by a simulation based on a modified Ginzburg-Landau-type soft-spin model.

Flux-flow instability and its anisotropy inBi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δsuperconducting films

We report measurements on voltage instability at high flux-flow velocities in ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}{\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{8+\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$ superconducting films. Current-voltage $(I\ensuremath{-}V)$ characteristics have been measured as a function of temperature, magnetic field, and angle between the field and the c axis of the sample. Voltage jumps were observed in $I\ensuremath{-}V$ characteristics taken in all magnetic-field directions and in extended temperature and field ranges. An analysis of the experimental data, based on a theory for viscous flux-flow instability with a finite heat-removal rate from the sample, yielded the inelastic scatterin…

Vortex-liquid entanglement inBi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δfilms in the presence of quenched disorder

We have investigated the thermally activated behavior of the in-plane electrical resistivity of ${\mathrm{Bi}}_{2}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{2}{\mathrm{CaCu}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{8+\mathrm{\ensuremath{\delta}}}$ films for magnetic fields $Bl~{10}^{4}\mathrm{G}$ applied parallel to the $c$ axis. The activation energy in the vortex-liquid state changes suddenly at a crossover field ${B}_{\mathrm{cr}}.$ The anisotropy reduction generated by oxygen annealing leads to the increase of the crossover field. For $Bl{B}_{\mathrm{cr}},$ the activation energy $U$ is weakly magnetic-field dependent. For $Bg{B}_{\mathrm{cr}},$ $U(B,T)\ensuremath{\sim}(1\ensuremath{-}{T/T}_{c0}{)/B}^{1/2},$ which corresponds to an entan…

Flux Pinning by Columnar Defects in Bi<sub>2</sub>Sr<sub>2</sub>CaCu<sub>2</sub>O<sub>8</sub>-Thin Films

Thin film preparation of the low charge carrier density Kondo system CeSb

Abstract We report the thin film preparation of CeSb by means of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) onto sapphire (1 1 −2 0) substrates. Above a substrate temperature of about 300°C CeSb crystallizes in (0 0 1) orientation. The growth mode of the films changes from a fiber textured to an epitaxial mode for deposition temperatures above 900°C. Although the specific resistivity is enhanced the characteristic energy scales, like the Kondo temperature TK and the magnetic ordering temperature TN, are not changed significantly.

Absence of correlated flux pinning by columnar defects in irradiated epitaxial Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 thin films

Abstract Using heavy-ion irradiation, we produced columnar defects of different density and orientation in epitaxial Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 thin films. Although this increases the normal state resistivity and the critical temperature is reduced proportionally to the volume fraction of damaged material, pinning-related quantities like critical current density, activation energy and depinning field are enhanced in external magnetic fields. Transport measurements in dependence of the magnetic field and its orientation consistently indicate two-dimensional pinning of pancake vortices at the columnar defects. We observe the absence of correlated flux pinning by columnar defects and compare to heav…

Scaling properties of magnetic domain walls in Pt/Co/Pt trilayers on MgO (111)

Abstract We present a scaling analysis of the time evolution of domain walls in ultrathin magnetic films that are subject to different forms of uncorrelated and correlated disorder caused by the microstructure of the underlying template. The study is performed on ultrafine modulated Pt/Co/Pt trilayers grown on as-supplied and structured MgO (1 1 1) substrates employing polar Kerr microscopy for the imaging of the magnetic domains.