A rapid process of Yba₂Cu₃O_7-δ thin film fabrication using trifluoroacetate metal-organic deposition with polyethylene glycol additive

Trifluoroacetate metal-organic deposition (TFA-MOD) is a promising technique to fabricate YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) superconducting films. However, its slow pyrolysis process, which usually takes more than 10 h, constitutes a barrier for industrial production. In this study, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was utilized to reduce the stress generation inside the coated films when the strong pyrolysis reactions happen.

With the addition of 30 wt% PEG2000 to the precursor solution, a smooth film surface could be obtained through a rapid pyrolysis process of 15 min. After the optimizations of the crystallization and oxygenation processes, mass percentage and molecular weight of PEG additive, YBCO thin films with Jc of about 4.5 MA cm-2 (77 K, self-field) could be routinely fabricated using (20-30) wt% PEG(1000-2000) additive with a total treatment time of about 2 h including the 15 min pyrolysis process time.

The effects of PEG additive were discussed using one of the mechanisms of buckling formation. The reduction of compressive stress by PEG additive was suggested to be the reason for preventing buckling.