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The increase in the microwave surface resistance Rs of high Tc superconductors at elevated microwave power levels is reported for both oriented and unoriented Tl‐based films as a function of rf magnetic field at 820 MHz and 18 GHz. The application of dc magnetic fields produces qualitatively similar increases in Rs and in the surface reactance Xs. The increase in Rs with dc field is shown to arise from simple decoupling of grains by intergranular magnetic flux. The increase in Rs with microwave power, on the other hand, is a consequence of hysteretic intergranular processes.

The surface resistance Rs of YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO) thin films (0.6±0.1 μm) deposited onto 2.5‐cm diam (100) LaAlO3 substrates has been measured at 22 GHz using both Cu and Nb cavities. The surface resistance falls precipitously at the superconducting transition (Tc =90 K) from a normal state value of approximately 2 Ω to a 77 K value of 13.7±1 mΩ, which is 1.6 times lower than Cu. At 4 K the surface resistance is 1±0.1 mΩ, as measured in a Nb superconducting cavity, which is an order of magnitude lower than Cu. The critical current density at 77 K is 4.5×104 A/cm2. Pole figure analyses show the ratio of c‐axis to a‐axis‐oriented material in the film is 2.4:1. YBCO films deposited onto either LaGaO3 or LaAlO3 substrates with varying c/a ratios yield surface resistance values at 77 K that are crudely correlated with Rs. Therefore, the principal effect of orienting the material is to improve the sharpness of the high‐frequency superconducting transition, consistent with the notion that the sharpness is associated...

An increase by over three orders of magnitude from 0.58 mΩ to 1.17 Ω was observed at 4.0 K in the 3 GHz microwave surface resistance of ceramic YBa2Cu3O7−δ following exposure to neutrons. The transport resistivity of an unirradiated pellet was linear in temperature down to Tc with a room‐temperature value of 2.13 mΩ cm and a resistivity extrapolated to 4.0 K of 0.53 mΩ cm. Following irradiation, the resistivity rose with decreasing temperature from a room‐temperature value of 1.5 Ω cm to a maximum at around 45 K with little change evident at Tc . These results, in conjunction with eddy current, susceptibility, iodometric titration, and thermally stimulated luminescence measurements on irradiated and unirradiated samples, collectively suggest that the effect of neutron irradiation has been to decrease intergranular coupling without the development of an insulating phase.

Surface resistance measurements on Tl‐Ba‐Ca‐Cu‐O thick films (∼15 μm) magnetron sputtered onto BaF2‐buffered, silver‐based (Consil 995) substrates have been made at a microwave frequency of 22 GHz. The relatively large‐area films (∼5 cm2) are characterized by surface resistance values of 6.9±2 mΩ at 11.3 K and 30.2±1 mΩ at 77 K; the corresponding values for Cu are 10 and 22 mΩ, respectively. These results demonstrate that Tl‐Ba‐Ca‐Cu‐O can be deposited onto large‐area, metallic substrates with characteristic surface resistance values lower than Cu at 4 K. Orientation of the film should improve the surface resistance at 77 K, thereby making the fabrication of microwave cavities that are superior to Cu possible.

We recently demonstrated that insulating surface impurity phases in high‐temperature superconductors can be detected by thermally stimulated luminescence. Moreover, we suggested that the intensity of luminescence is related to the magnitude of the rf surface resistance. In this work we show that a quantitative correlation exists between these two quantities, and that luminescence can be a very useful technique for estimating rf surface resistance.

We show that thermally stimulated luminescence is an important method for detecting insulating impurity phases that commonly occur in high Tc superconductors. The technique is sensitive to impurity phases at

Surface resistance measurements of films of YBa2Cu3O7 deposited onto single‐crystal substrates of LaGaO3 and SrTiO3 have been made at a frequency of 22 GHz. The measurements were made in either a copper or niobium cavity by replacing the end wall with the superconducting film. Typical surface resistance at 20 K are 1–2 mΩ for films on LaGaO3 and 6–8 mΩ for films on SrTiO3, as measured in the copper cavity. The LaGaO3 values lie within the sensitivity range of the Cu cavity (∼2 mΩ) and can only be considered upper limits. Similar measurements in a Nb superconducting cavity resulted in a surface resistance value of 0.2±0.1 mΩ at 4 K for the best LaGaO3‐based film. This value is more than an order of magnitude lower than Cu, and suggests that LaGaO3‐based films may offer immediate advantages in a number of applications.