BUFFER LAYERS ON LOW LOSS SUBSTRATES FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING THIN FILMS

THIS PROJECT CAPITALIZES ON THREE EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES BY INTEGRATING A FLEXIBLE MEMBRANE (AS A HIGHLY EFFICIENT TRANSDUCER) IMPRESSIVE SCANNING AND IMAGING ALGORITHMS FOUND IN MEDICINE, AND LOW-COST PC-BASED COMPUTERS WITH A FAST, DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING (DSP) BOARD. THE EVENTUAL MACHINE WILL BE CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING RAPID TESTING OF FERROUS AND NON-FERROUS MATERIALS WHILE ON THE ASSEMBLY LINEWITH LITTLE OPERATOR ATTENTION, THUS REDUCING QUALITY CONTROL COSTS DIRECTLY AT THE FACTORY AS A TYPE OF "GO, NO GO" DETECTOR. THIS WILL BE MADE POSSIBLE IN LARGE PART BY THE RUGGED AND FLEXIBLE TRANSDUCER HARNESS, WHICH WILL BE IMPERVIOUS TO A HARSH MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT; THE HIGH QUALITY OF SIGNAL ANALYSIS AFFORDED BY TOMOGRAPHY; AND THE CURRENTLY LOW-COST COMPUTERS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEVELOP EPITAXIAL BUFFERLAYERS GROWN BY CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION (CVD) THAT WILL PROVIDE BOTH A DIFFUSION-REACTION BARRIER AND A TRANSITION IN CRYSTAL STRUCTURE AND LATTICE PARAMETER BETWEEN A LOW-LOSS, SINGLE-CRYSTAL SUBSTRATE AND AN EPITAXIAL, SINGLE-CRYSTAL, HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING FILM. PHASE I WILL ESTABLISH PROOF OF CONCEPT VIA HOMOEPITAXY. FOR EXAMPLE, MGO FILMS WILL BE GROWN ON SINGLE-CRYSTAL MGO SUBSTRATES, AND LAA103 FILMS WILL BE GROWN ON SINGLE-CRYSTALLAA103 SUBSTRATES. THE FILMS WILL BE EVALUATED FOR CRYSTAL QUALITY, SURFACE SMOOTHNESS, AND UNIFORMITY, AND PROCESS CONDITIONS WILL BE ADJUSTED TO OPTIMIZE FILM PROPERTIES. IN PHASE II THE PROCESS WILL BE EXTENDED TO HETEROEPITAXY, WITHTHE GOAL OF PROVIDING EPITAXIAL BUFFER LAYERS FOR SUPERCONDUCTING FILMS ON SUBSTRATES, SUCH AS SINGLE-CRYSTAL A12O3 (SAPPHIRE), THAT ARE HIGHLY DESIRABLE FOR MICROWAVE APPLICATIONS.