A method that combines thin film deposition and physical masking techniques has been used for the parallel synthesis of spatially addressable libraries of solid-state materials. Arrays containing different combinations, stoichiometries, and deposition sequences of BaCO(3), Bi(2)O(3), CaO, CuO, PbO, SrCO(3), and Y(2)O(3) were generated with a series of binary masks. The arrays were sintered and BiSrCaCuO and YBaCuO superconducting films were identified. Samples as small as 200 micrometers by 200 micrometers in size were generated, corresponding to library densities of 10,000 sites per square inch. The ability to generate and screen combinatorial libraries of solid-state compounds, when coupled with theory and empirical observations, may significantly increase the rate at which novel electronic, magnetic, and optical materials are discovered and theoretical predictions tested.
The recent development of methods for generating libraries of solid-state compounds has made it possible to apply combinatorial approaches to the discovery of materials. A library of 128 members containing different compositions and stoichiometries of Ln
x
M
y
CoO
δ
, where Ln = Y or La and M = Pb, Ca, Sr, or Ba, was synthesized by a combination of thin-film deposition and physical masking techniques. Large magnetoresistance has been found in La
x
(Ba,Sr,Ca)
y
-CoO
δ
samples, whereas Y-based samples exhibit much smaller magnetoresistive effects. The magnetoresistance of the Co-containing compounds increases as the size of the alkaline earth ion increases, in sharp contrast to Mn-containing compounds, in which the magnetoresistance effect increases as the size of the alkaline earth ion decreases.
Sizable single crystals of C(6O) have been synthesized and doped with potassium. Above the superconducting transition temperature T(c), the electrical resistivity p(T) displays a classic metal-like temperature dependence. The transition to the superconducting state at T(c) = 19.8 K is extremely sharp, with a transition width DeltaT < 200 mK. In contrast to transport behavior of doped polycrystalline and granular thin films, no anomalous fluctuations are observed near T(c) in single crystal specimens.
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