High-speed micropatterning of oxide thin films by water lift-off with high-pressure water jet

Abstract We performed selective growth of SrRuO 3 and YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−x (YBCO) thin films using a water lift-off process in which an amorphous SrCO 3 sacrificial layer was rapidly removed by high-pressure water jet (HPWJ) treatment. A clear correlation was observed between the process parameters (water pressure, scanning speed and number of scanning cycles) of HPWJ treatment and the roughness (R a ) of the substrate surface after HPWJ treatment. A characteristic parameter ( K cp ) was defined based on these process parameters. K cp was clearly correlated with R a . Carbonated water dipping before HPWJ treatment enabled efficient removal of the sacrificial layer. We also applied HPWJ treatment to YBCO thin film, which is known to have low water resistance. Lines of c -axis-oriented YBCO thin film with widths of 30–100 μ m were fabricated on substrates by HPWJ treatment for 270 s. The prepared YBCO film lines possessed relatively high crystallinity and superconductivity.