Nanodiamond Influence on the Nucleation and Growth of YBCO Superconducting Film Deposited by Metal-Organic Decomposition

Valentina Pinto; Angelo Vannozzi; Giuseppe Celentano; Massimo Tomellini; Alexander Meledin; Silvia Orlanducci

doi:10.1021/acs.cgd.3c00607

Nanodiamond Influence on the Nucleation and Growth of YBCO Superconducting Film Deposited by Metal-Organic Decomposition

Cryst Growth Des. 2023 Jul 15;23(8):6086-6099. doi: 10.1021/acs.cgd.3c00607. eCollection 2023 Aug 2.

Authors

Valentina Pinto¹, Angelo Vannozzi¹, Giuseppe Celentano¹, Massimo Tomellini², Alexander Meledin³, Silvia Orlanducci²

Affiliations

¹ Superconductivity Laboratory, FSN-COND, ENEA, Via E. Fermi 45, 00044 Frascati (Rome), Italy.
² Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies, Via della Ricerca Scientifica, Tor Vergata University, Rome 000173, Italy.
³ Central Facility for Electron Microscopy, RWTH Aachen University, Ahornstraße 55, 52074 Aachen, Germany.

Abstract

It was recently shown that the introduction of nanodiamond (ND) into a superconducting metal-organic deposited YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ (YBCO) film produces an increase in critical current density in self-field conditions (B = 0 T). Such improvement appears to be due to the formation of denser and smoother films than the samples deposited without ND. This paper presents the work done to understand the role of ND during YBCO nucleation and growth. A detailed study on YBCO+ND films quenched at different temperatures of the crystallization process was carried out. Results showed that the reaction responsible for YBCO production appeared effectively affected by ND. In particular, ND stabilizes one of the YBCO precursors, BaF_2(1-x)O_x, whose conversion into YBCO requires a prolonged time. Therefore, the YBCO nucleation is slowed down by ND and begins when the experimental conditions favor both thermodynamically and kinetically the formation of YBCO along the c-axis. This effect has important implications because the growth of a highly epitaxial c-axis YBCO film enables excellent superconducting performance.