Preparation of p/n-type YBa2Cu3O7−δ/Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 superconducting heterostructures

Due to the great differences in electron pairing characteristics between the hole-type (p-type) high-temperature superconductor (HTS) and the electron-type (n-type) HTS, when the Cooper pairs enter from a p-type to an n-type HTS or an n-type to a p-type HTS, pairing adjustment or even the recombination of them will inevitably occur at the interface, and the superconducting current dominated by them will be bound to change. Therefore, it is possible to better understand the electron pairing mechanism of the HTS and develop new HTS junction devices by studying these changes. In this paper, p-/n-type YBa2Cu3O7−δ/Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4 (YBCO/NCCO) heterostructures were prepared via pulsed laser deposition on (00l)-oriented single-crystal SrTiO3 substrates. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate that the NCCO films prepared on YBCO do not exhibit good c-axis epitaxial growth, while excellent c-axis epitaxial growth is obtained for YBCO/NCCO heterostructures with NCCO at the bottom. Due to the high-temperature oxygen atmosphere and the deoxygenation process, the superconducting electrical properties of the bilayer structure are seriously degraded, and it is not possible to obtain good superconducting electrical properties for both the upper and lower layers using the traditional preparation process based on an oxygen atmosphere. Subsequently, the effects of different growth atmospheres on the electrical properties of the YBCO superconductors were studied, and high-quality YBCO superconducting films could be grown in oxygen, nitrous oxide, and nitrogen atmospheres. However, the oxygen and nitrous oxide atmospheres degrade the superconducting electrical properties of the underlying NCCO layer, while the nitrogen atmosphere does not seem to affect it significantly. YBCO/NCCO superconducting bilayers with critical transition temperatures of 85 and 8 K for YBCO and NCCO, respectively, were finally prepared by growing NCCO in an oxygen atmosphere and YBCO in a nitrogen atmosphere using a low-temperature oxygenation process. The successful preparation of the p-/n-type HTS heterostructure will help further study on the HTS.