The invention discloses an
argon ion beam
etching method for an REBCO superconducting thick film micro-bridge structure, and belongs to the technical field of high-temperature superconducting. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, spin-
coating AZ series
photoresist with the thickness of about 3-6 microns on the surface of a silver layer, and optimizing
exposure and development conditions to obtain a stable graphical
mask; the sample is placed in an
argon ion beam
etching system, a vertical incidence mode is adopted, the
ion energy is controlled to be 400-500 eV, the
ion beam current is 90 ma, the neutralizing current is 1-1.3 times that of the
ion beam current, the
argon pressure is 1.8 * 10 <-2 >-2.2 * 10 <-2 >, and the sample is subjected to
water cooling at the temperature of 10 DEG C and rotated.
Etching of the silver layer and the thick REBCO layer is completed at the speed of about 1 micron of the REBCO layer per hour, and finally the micro-bridge structure with the clear pattern edge and the no-damage film layer is formed. The method has the advantages of large
etching depth, high pattern fidelity, small influence on superconducting performance and the like, and is suitable for
electrical transport performance test and device application.