Figure 6
From: Control of the nanosized defect network in superconducting thin films by target grain size
A proposed schematic illustration how nanograined and micrograined YBCO targets lead to different ablation mechanisms. The original target grain size together with differences in the number of grain boundaries and through the grain boundaries released oxygen (on the left) affect the modified laser–target interaction. Since the laser energy is concentrated on the surface layer in n-YBCO target, the melting process is faster, leading to more powerful removal of YBCO (on the right). These mechanisms result in a smooth plume of individual atoms and ions in \(\mu \)-YBCO, while in n-YBCO a great number of larger fragments of YBCO nanoparticles occur (in the middle).
