Deposition of superconducting YBaCuO thin films by pseudospark ablation

Thin YBaCuO films have been deposited on ZrO₂(Y) and SrTiO₃ substrates by a novel ablation method, using a pulsed intense electron beam generated by a pseudospark source. Films with zero resistance around 85 K were grown at substrate temperatures of 820 °C with high reproducibility. X-ray analysis indicates highly textured growth on both substrates. J_c values were 6×10⁶ A/cm² at 4.2 K and 1.1×10⁵ A/cm² at 77 K. Because of the high simplicity of the deposition system and the variety of changeable parameters it represents an interesting alternative to existing laser ablation methods.