Comparison of water degradation of YBaCuO superconducting films made from different structures

Abstract

Immersion of YBaCuO superconducting films in water has shown a large difference in degradation between structures with and without silver. For the structures containing silver layers and depositing at a high temperature, superconducting films with zero resistance at 87 K remain superconductive at 77 K after 5 h immersion in water, with an increase in room-temperature film resistance by a factor of 4; the contact resistance remains low after 60 h of immersion, allowing the measurement at low temperatures. For the structures containing no silver and depositing at room temperature, the contact resistance rapidly increases with immersion times, making the measurement at 77 K difficult after 5 min of immersion. Changes in the sharpness of the superconductive transition, and structures of the films due to the water immersion are also compared.