High-quality surface YBCO thin films prepared by off-axis pulsed laser deposition technique

Epitaxial YBCO superconducting thin films have been grown in-situ by XeCl excimer laser ablation using an off-axis deposition geometry. This PLD geometry allows to obtain films with an excellent surface morphology without droplets or other particulates. The as-obtained YBCO films exhibit good structural and superconducting properties with T-c(R=0) = 89.5 K, R-(300)/R-(100) = 2.8, Delta T = 1.3 K, J(c) = 2 x 10(6) A/cm(2) (at 77 K and zero magnetic field) and full width half maximum of the rocking curve of the (005) YBCO peak of about 0.16 degrees. These structural and electrical properties are very close to those of the YBCO films deposited by the conventional PLD on-axis geometry.