Ink-jet printing of SrTiO₃buffer layers from aqueous solutions

Abstract

In this work, fully a-axis oriented SrTiO 3 thin films were synthesized by ink-jet printing of water-based precursor inks. The developed precursor solution or 'ink' was optimized in terms of rheology, leading to the ejection of single droplets showing a maximum contact angle of 12°on (100) oriented single crystal LaAlO 3 substrates. By using the appropriate ink-jet deposition parameters and thermal treatment, well-textured and dense SrTiO 3 films of 130 nm thickness were obtained. The biaxial texture is maintained up to the surface of the films, leading to the formation of (h00)-oriented terraces. As shown by transmission electron microscopy, excellent texture transfer was achieved from the SrTiO 3 film to the YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 − δ layer deposited by pulsed laser deposition. Outstanding superconducting properties were obtained with critical current densities up to 3.6 MA cm −2 in self-field at 77 K, demonstrating that these sustainable SrTiO 3 films meet the requirements to be used as growing template for high quality superconducting coatings.

Influence of Ba2+ consumption and intermediate dwelling during processing of YBa2Cu3O7 nanocomposite films

“…However, the physical deposition processes require high vacuum and result in higher production costs in contrast to, for example MOCVD which only requires a moderate vacuum . Chemical solution deposition (CSD) technology offers an economically viable synthesis route toward low‐cost medium performance as it operates under normal pressure . The CSD technique is a highly flexible method for the fabrication of oxide thin films, however, it is not straightforward to tailor its epitaxial growth of desired microstructure.…”

Chemical solution deposition of functional ceramic coatings using ink-jet printing

“…Nevertheless, systems with inverse Ohnesorge numbers higher than 10 have been shown to be printable by multiple research groups. [3,23] Table 2 shows an example of fluid properties of aqueous YBCO and STO inks. Given the different nozzle diameters different Oh -1 are obtained depending on the used printer system (Table 3).…”

“…In our research, we focus on chemical solution deposition (CSD) techniques to deposit ceramic precursor inks, which will be processed into a functional ceramic coating. [1][2][3][4][5][6] We use different precursor inks, depending on the application: complexated metal ions inks, an ink containing solely ceramic nanoparticles (NPs) or a combination of complexated metal ions and ceramic NPs. The use of NPs offer interesting advantages like lower final processing temperatures for inks solely consisting of NPs (e.g.…”

“…[15] Only recently there has been a growing interest in using the deposition technique for functional ceramic coatings and patterns. [1, 3,5,[16][17][18][19] The biggest advantage of ink-jet printing as a one-step process is its low investment cost, scalability, the more efficient use of materials and the high control of the thickness of the coating. [15] The fluid properties of newly developed inks are analyzed to determine the printability and is expressed with dimensionless constants, like the Reynolds and Weber numbers.…”

“…[1, 5,15] We use the knowledge on ink formulation and ink-jet printing for the formation of SrTiO3 thin films for coated conductor applications, high-temperature superconducting coated conductors and transparent TiO2 photocatalytic coatings which will be discussed below. [1, 3,5,[16][17][18][19]] However, we have also developed YSZ coatings for solid oxide fuel cells and thermal barrier coatings, or LMSO magneto-resistive systems to obtain functional magneto-resistive patterns, which can be found elsewhere. [20,21] …”