Flux-assisted reactive solid phase epitaxy of highly c-axis oriented Ru(Eu1.5Ce0.5)Sr2Cu2O10−δ thin films

Highly c-axis oriented epitaxial Ru(Eu1.5Ce0.5)Sr2Cu2O10−δ (Ru-1222) thin films were grown on SrTiO3 (0 0 1) substrates by a novel growth technique, flux-assisted reactive solid phase epitaxy. The films grew epitaxially as (1 0 0)Ru-1222//(1 0 0)SrTiO3 with excellent crystallinity and atomically flat terraces and steps. The magnetization data are consistent with that reported for bulk Ru-1222 samples. The films are suggested to be granular superconducting. Although zero resistance was not obtained at temperatures down to 5 K, the onset of superconducting transition was observed at about 25 K within the ferromagnetic order.