Licensable Technologies : Materials : Separations

High Temperature Superconducting Composites and Manufacture of Same

Abstract
The present invention relates to a manner and method for controlled deposition of multilayer high-temperature superconducting (HTS) films, HTS films with functionally graded compositions, and HTS films doped with small amounts of a second material. Untrafine multilayers can be deposited through the use of only one target. The invention also allows for the fabrication of ultrafine multilayer structures where the number of layers exceeds 140 per micron. Pulsed-laser-deposition is important in the use of the invention, but it also offers benefits to other deposition methods: sputtering and ion beam sputtering.

Application(s)
The invention has broad applications in the superconductor industry as well as all general film-related industries such as semiconductor, insulating, coatings, where multilayer functionally graded materials are important.

Multilayer thin films are widely used in all the mentioned industries because they offer important benefits over more simple thin film compositions. Benefits of multilayer thin films include functionality, stability, and performance primarily due to superior properties.

Unique benefits of the invention include:
- Will make life much easier in terms of manufacturing on multilayer thin films
- Can deposit a high density/and quantity of thin layers
- Will create a superior layer structure
- Can be used to deposit superlattice and ferromagnetic materials

Convenience and ease of use also translate in accelerated processing times. The invention can use sectored targets requiring only one source to deposit materials (instead of multiple sources) � this simplifies design and reduces cost of the deposition system: only one sputtering target and gun would be needed.

IP Status: Available Exclusively

Reference Number: 203

S Number: DOE reference no.(s): 104,904; 109,035; 97,795

Patents & Applications:
United States National Patent Number 6994775 Issued on 02/07/2006

Posted: 09-16-2004

Contact
John Russell
Technology Transfer Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory
P.O. Box 1663, MailStop C334
(505) 665-3941
jrussell@lanl.gov