Progress in the first ten years of HTS film growth

Since its discovery, the quality of highcritical-temperature superconducting (HTS) thin films has continued to improve through a better understanding of how the crystalline structure affects transport properties and the development of new approaches to oxidefilm deposition. Thin-film processing plays a key role in determining the properties because of the extremely small coherence length in all HTS materials. Issues of appropriate substrate matching and oxygen mobility still remain before YBa₂Cu₂O_7.8 thin films can find use in digital applications.