Monitoring of thin layer deposits of high temperature superconducting materials by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique (EDXRF)

We present here a method for rapidly monitoring the composition of samples deposited on a substrate. This was applied to the case of superconducting material YBa₂Cu₃O₇ deposited by laser evaporation on quartz plates. The aim of this study was to achieve the right composition of the deposited material so as to have it superconducting at high temperatures. The monitoring was done by comparing the X-ray spectrum obtained by EDXRF technique of the deposited film with the spectrum of the original superconducting material. By this method of signature analysis it was possible to arrive at the laser beam parameters which give the elemental composition of the deposited material almost as same as that of the original material. The optimization was done by changing the laser power and pulse width and monitoring the X-ray fluorescence spectra as a function of the beam parameters.