Structural investigation of the BaSnO3-YBa2Cu3O7−x system

We report the microstructure change of BaSnO3 (BSO)-YBa2Cu3O7−x (YBCO) thin film system grown on SrTiO3 single crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition with using the “surface-modified-target” and “mixture-target” methods. Although it was confirmed that the thick BSO nanorods incorporated to YBCO films act as strong artificial pinning centers, the formation mechanism of the nanorods is still unclear. The purpose of this work is to extend the structural investigation to higher contents of BSO (up to 71 vol.%) in order to enlighten the relationship among interfacial energy, morphology and pinning performance in binary BSO-YBCO films.