Nd:YAG infrared laser as a viable alternative to excimer laser: YBCO case study

Sandeep Kumar Chaluvadi; Shyni Punathum Chalil; Federico Mazzola; Simone Dolabella; Piu Rajak; Marcello Ferrara; Regina Ciancio; Jun Fujii; Giancarlo Panaccione; Giorgio Rossi; Pasquale Orgiani

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-30887-3

Nd:YAG infrared laser as a viable alternative to excimer laser: YBCO case study

Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 8;13(1):3882. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30887-3.

Authors

Sandeep Kumar Chaluvadi¹, Shyni Punathum Chalil^{2

3}, Federico Mazzola^{2

4}, Simone Dolabella², Piu Rajak^{2

3}, Marcello Ferrara², Regina Ciancio^{2

5}, Jun Fujii², Giancarlo Panaccione², Giorgio Rossi^{2

6}, Pasquale Orgiani⁷

Affiliations

¹ CNR-IOM Istituto Officina dei Materiali, TASC Laboratory, Area Science Park, s.s.14 km 163.5, 34149, Trieste, Italy. chaluvadi@iom.cnr.it.
² CNR-IOM Istituto Officina dei Materiali, TASC Laboratory, Area Science Park, s.s.14 km 163.5, 34149, Trieste, Italy.
³ International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, 34151, Trieste, Italy.
⁴ Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, 30172, Venice, Italy.
⁵ AREA Science Park, Padriciano 99, 34139, Trieste, Italy.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133, Milan, Italy.
⁷ CNR-IOM Istituto Officina dei Materiali, TASC Laboratory, Area Science Park, s.s.14 km 163.5, 34149, Trieste, Italy. orgiani@iom.cnr.it.

Abstract

We report on the growth and characterization of epitaxial YBa[Formula: see text]Cu[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] (YBCO) complex oxide thin films and related heterostructures exclusively by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and using first harmonic Nd:Y[Formula: see text]Al[Formula: see text]O[Formula: see text] (Nd:YAG) pulsed laser source ([Formula: see text] = 1064 nm). High-quality epitaxial YBCO thin film heterostructures display superconducting properties with transition temperature [Formula: see text] 80 K. Compared with the excimer lasers, when using Nd:YAG lasers, the optimal growth conditions are achieved at a large target-to-substrate distance d. These results clearly demonstrate the potential use of the first harmonic Nd:YAG laser source as an alternative to the excimer lasers for the PLD thin film community. Its compactness as well as the absence of any safety issues related to poisonous gas represent a major breakthrough in the deposition of complex multi-element compounds in form of thin films.