Investigation of diethanolamine (DEA) as a chelating agent in the fabrication of fluorine-free propionate route YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) thin films

Abstract

The role of diethanolamine (DEA) as a chelating agent was investigated in a fluorine-free precursor solution for the growth of superconducting YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) thin films via chemical solution deposition. Infrared spectroscopy and thermal analyses were employed to elucidate the interactions between the chelating agent and propionate-based coating solution. The physical properties of the as-obtained YBCO films were investigated to assess the effect of DEA addition on film growth. Special emphasis was placed on the determination of superconducting transport properties. These have been investigated in wide magnetic field (0 – 18 T) and temperature (4.5 – 77 K) ranges to account for various possible application scenarios. The 90 nm thick YBCO film deposited on a (001) SrTiO3 single-crystal substrate exhibited a critical current density of 4 MA/cm2 at 77 K in self-field.

Focus on recent advances in superconducting films

“…The combination of both phenomena resulted in significantly higher critical current densities (J c ), up to 7 MA cm −2 at 77 K and self-field, for the optimized films in the whole range of temperatures and fields investigated. Another work that used CSD to prepare the films was the one of Daniel et al in which they added diethanolamine (DEA) to the YBCO precursor solution to explore its role as a chelating agent [2]. They investigated the interactions between DEA and a fluorine-free precursor solution, shedding light on the influence of DEA on the quality of the film growth and superconducting transport properties.…”