STRUCTURAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF ULTRATHIN YBCO FILMS GROWN ON SINGLE-CRYSTAL SUBSTRATES

Epitaxial (001)-oriented ultrathin YBCO films of different thicknesses are deposited by Inverted Cylindrical Magnetron Sputtering (ICMS) on (100) MgO single-crystal substrates. The mean films stoichiometry is determined by Rutherford Backscattering (RBS). Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) are employed in order to analyse film growth, and identify spurious phases present in the samples.