Effect of the microstructure of epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7 ? x films on their electrophysical and nonlinear microwave properties

The local nonlinear microwave response of YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 ? x} films was measured by near-zone field microscopy with a spatial resolution of 50 μm, and YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 ? x} film microbridges were locally studied by low-temperature scanning microscopy with a spatial resolution of 4 μm. The microstructure of epitaxial YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 ? x} films was examined using x-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. A correlation is detected between the average crystallite size and the half-widths of the temperature dependences of the third-harmonic power (W _TH) and the electron-beam-induced voltage (W _EBIV). The experimental results are described in terms of a model of a two-phase medium taking into account the nonlinear I-V characteristic of the superconductor. For large crystallites, the nonlinear microwave response is shown to be caused by intracrystallite vortex pinning. As the average crystallite size decreases, an additional contribution to the nonlinear response appears due to the pinning of a magnetic flux by the Josephson network of crystallite boundaries. Calculations show that a three-fold increase in the crystallite size decreases the nonlinearity coefficient of YBa₂Cu₃O_{7 ? x} films by two orders of magnitude.