Influence of Dip-Coating Temperature Upon Film Thickness in Chemical Solution Deposition

Chemical solution deposition (CSD) is widely used to fabricate YBCO superconducting and oxide buffer layers for high-temperature coated conductors. Controlling film thickness is important in the CSD technology and can be conducted through several methods. This study proposes a new method of adjusting the temperature of dip-coating. A precursor solution was prepared for fabrication of a YBCO layer. The temperatures of the precursor solution and substrate were fixed at 0 °C, 10 °C, 20 °C, or 30 °C during dip-coating by using a water bath system. Film thickness was measured by scanning electron microscopy after pyrolysis. The average thickness of the pyrolyzed films decreased from 265 to 158 nm when the dip-coating temperature increased from 0 °C to 30 °C, therefore verifying the feasibility of the new method for thickness control. The nonuniformity of thickness distribution along the withdrawal direction was detected and discussed. The influence of temperature on solution viscosity and film thickness was analyzed based on the equation of thickness dependence in dip-coating. The proposed method for thickness control could contribute to increasing the synthesis window in thin-film fabrication through CSD.