Passivation, superconductor surface

Fig. 1 Schematic showing passivation of hlgh-T superconductor surface with Ag, Au, and composite materials (left) compared to disruptive reaction for chemically active overlayers (right).

While the native oxide layer on conventional metal superconductors passivates the surface, this is not the case for HTSC. A short-circuit in a native or artificial insulating layer has been considered to be responsible for the appearance of zero-bias peaks accompanied by the proximity effect. Mechanical damage at the interface may also create small particles, causing a charging effect, which then gives rise to various spurious features in the spectrum such as multi-peak conductance. Another difficulty in point-contact methods is the arbitrariness of the results due to the dependence on the contact pressure. 

Surface fluorination in various fluorinated media are currently used nowadays as processes that allow the modifications of many classes of materials, such as metals, intermetallics, semiconductors, carbons, superconductors, oxide ceramics. The above selected examples have illustrated some physical properties that can be drastically modified, including conduction, adhesion, passivation, superconductivity, hy drophobicity / wettability. 

We will focus our attention to some of the numerous ozone appheations in oiganic pol5mier and inorganic productions, passivation, cleanup and preparation of surfaces for electronics, superconductors, etc. 

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