We report the effect of annealing on the superconductivity of MgB2 thin films as functions of the postannealing temperature in the range from 700 C to 950 C and of the postannealing time in the range from 30 min to 120 min. On annealing at 900 C for 30 min, we obtained the best-quality MgB2 films with a transition temperature of 39 K and a critical current density of ~ 10^7 A/cm^2. Using the scanning electron microscopy, we also investigated the film growth mechanism. The samples annealed at higher temperatures showed the larger grain sizes, well-aligned crystal structures with preferential orientations along the c-axis, and smooth surface morphologies. However, a longer annealing time prevented the alignment of grains and reduced the superconductivity, indicating a strong interfacial reaction between the substrate and the MgB2 film.
We report the growth and properties of epitaxial MgB2 thin films on (0001) Al2O3 substrates. The MgB2 thin films were prepared by depositing boron films via RF magnetron sputtering, followed by a post-deposition anneal at 850C in magnesium vapor. X-ray diffraction and cross-sectional TEM reveal that the epitaxial MgB2 films are oriented with their c-axis normal to the (0001) Al2O3 substrate and a 30 degree rotation in the ab-plane with respect to the substrate. The critical temperature was found to be 35 K and the anisotropy ratio, Hc2(parallel to the film) / Hc2(pendicular to the film), about 3 at 25K. The critical current densities at 4.2 K and 20 K (at 1 T perpendicular magnetic field) are 5x10E6 A/cm2 and 1x10E6 A/cm2, respectively. The controlled growth of epitaxial MgB2 thin films opens a new avenue in both understanding superconductivity in MgB2 and technological applications.
Epitaxial MgB2 thick films were grown on Al2O3 substrates at 600 oC by using the hybrid physical chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) technique. In order to obtain a high magnesium vapor pressure around the substrates, we used a special susceptor having a susceptor cap and achieved a very high growth rate of 0.17 um/min. Hexgonal-shaped columnar structures were observed by cross-sectional and planar view transmission electron microscope (TEM) images. For the 1.7-um-thick film, the Tc was observed to be 40.5 K with a Jc of 1.5 x 10^6 A/cm^2 at 30 K. The vortex pinning mechanism by intercolumnar boundaries will be discussed.
Epitaxial films of NdFeAsO were grown on GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). All elements including oxygen were supplied from solid sources using Knudsen cells. The x-ray diffraction pattern of the film prepared with the optimum growth condition showed no indication of impurity phases. Only (00l) peaks were observed, indicating that NdFeAsO was grown with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The window of optimum growth condition was very narrow, but the NdFeAsO phase was grown with a very good reproducibility. Despite the absence of any appreciable secondary phase, the resistivity showed an increase with decreasing temperature.
High-quality epitaxial MgB2 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition with Tc = 39 K offer the opportunity to study the anisotropy and robustness of the superconducting state in magnetic fields. We measure the in-plane electrical resistivity of the films in magnetic fields to 60T and estimate the superconducting upper critical field Hc(0) = 24 +- 3 T for field oriented along the c-axis, and Hab(0) = 30 +- 2 T for field in the plane of the film. We find the zero-temperature coherence lengths xi_c(0) = 30 A and xi_ab(0) = 37 A to be shorter than the calculated electronic mean free path l = 100 +- 50 A, which places our films in the clean limit. The observation of such large upper critical fields from clean limit samples, coupled with the relatively small anisotropy, provides strong evidence of the viability of MgB2 as a technologically important superconductor.