Transmission Electron Study of Heteroepitaxial Growth in the BiSrCaCuO System

TL;DR

This study uses transmission electron microscopy to analyze the microstructure and growth modes of heteroepitaxial BiSrCaCuO films and related compounds grown via atomic-layer molecular beam epitaxy, revealing insights into their morphology and superconducting properties.

Contribution

It provides detailed TEM analysis of heteroepitaxial BiSrCaCuO films and related compounds, advancing understanding of their growth and microstructure.

Findings

TEM reveals microstructural details of heterostructures

Insights into growth modes of anisotropic BiSrCaCuO films

Correlation between microstructure and superconducting properties

Abstract

Films of Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$CaCu$\rm _2$O$\rm _8$ and Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$CuO$\rm _6$ have been grown using Atomic-Layer-by-Layer Molecular Beam Epitaxy (ALL-MBE) on lattice-matched substrates. These materials have been combined with layers of closely-related metastable compounds like Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$Ca$\rm _7$Cu$\rm _8$O$\rm _{20}$ (2278) and rare-earth-doped compounds like Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$Dy$\rm _x$Ca$\rm _{1-x}$Cu$\rm _2$O$\rm _8$ (Dy:2212) to form heterostructures with unique superconducting properties, including superconductor/insulator multilayers and tunnel junctions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used to study the morphology and microstructure of these heterostructures. These TEM studies shed light on the physical properties of the films, and give insight into the growth mode of highly anisotropic solids like Bi$\rm _2$Sr$\rm _2$CaCu$\rm _2$O$\rm _8$.