Continuous change of supersaturation and evolution of oriented structure in dipping LPE process of YBa2Cu3O7−δ

Liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) films was performed by vertical dipping along both the [0 0 1] and the [1 1 0] directions of (1 1 0) NdGaO3 (NGO) substrates. Remarkably, an evolution of oriented structure from c-axis to a-axis, corresponding to the supersaturation (σ) change from high to low level, was explicitly observed on a single NGO substrate. Distinctively, creeping along the [0 0 1] direction and forming a low-σ-related a-oriented film with a crack-free macrostructure, the liquid presented a strong anisotropic wettability with the NGO substrate. Most importantly, this work provides a unique method to achieve high-quality a-axis YBCO LPE films, which are potentially appropriate for Josephson junction devices.