Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
The quality of epitaxially grown superconducting thin films is dependent on the nature of the substrate surface. In this study, the surface of <100> oriented SrTiO3 single crystals was modified by mechanical polishing, thermal annealing and chemical etching. A study of the YBa2Cu3O7-x thin films grown on these substrates showed that high quality superconducting films were obtained when the substrate surface was highly oriented in the <100> direction and was also microscopically smooth.