Orientation behavior of REBa2Cu3O7-y (RE = rare earth and Y) films prepared by chemical solution deposition

We have succeeded in preparing REBa2Cu3O7-y (RE123; RE = rare-earth elements and Y) films by chemical solution deposition (CSD) processing using metal naphthenates under low oxygen partial pressure. Few reports have been published on the preparation of RE123 by CSD processing, therefore, we prepared various RE123 films on different substrates systematically and examined the difference in the appearance of a/b-axis oriented grains and their in-plane alignment for each RE123 film as a function of heat-treatment parameters. Processing temperature and substrate dependencies of these films, grown by solid phase epitaxy, were observed to be the same as in the case of vapor phase epitaxy. Dependencies on ionic radius of RE elements are also observed and it is explained by lattice misfit.