Effect of Carbon-Doping in Bulk Superconducting MgB2 Samples

Bulk superconducting samples of MgB2 were prepared by solid state reaction of stoichiometric quantities of Mg turnings and B in a sealed Ta cylinder at 890 C for 2 hours. The as-synthesized MgB2 samples had a Tc of 39 K, as defined as the onset of diamagnetism. The crystal symmetry was found to be hexagonal with lattice parameters, a=3.0856 A, and c=3.5199 A, similar to the literature values. To study the effect of carbon doping in MgB2, various C-containing samples of x varying from 0 to 1.00 in MgB2-xCx were prepared. Magnetic characterizations indicate that the Tc onset is same for pure and C-doped samples for x = 0.05, and 0.10. However, the shielding signal decreased monotonically with C content, apparently due to the presence of carbon on the grain boundaries that isolates grains and prevents flow of supercurrents on the perimeter.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Superconducting magnesium diboride films on Silicon with Tc0 about 24K grown via vacuum annealing from stoichiometric precursors

Superconducting magnesium diboride films with Tc0 ~ 24 K and sharp transition \~ 1 K were successfully prepared on silicon substrates by pulsed laser deposition from a stoichiometric MgB2 target. Contrary to previous reports, anneals at 630 degree and a background of 2x10^(-4) torr Ar/4%H2 were performed without the requirement of Mg vapor or an Mg cap layer. This integration of superconducting MgB2 films on silicon may thus prove enabling in superconductor-semiconductor device applications. Images of surface morphology and cross-section profiles by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) show that the films have a uniform surface morphology and thickness. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) reveals these films were contaminated with oxygen, originating either from the growth environment or from sample exposure to air. The oxygen contamination may account for the low Tc for those in-situ annealed films, while the use of Si as the substrate does not result in a decrease in Tc as compared to other substrates.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 15 references; due to file size limit, images were blure

Superconducting magnesium diboride films with Tc \approx 24K grown by pulsed laser deposition with in-situ anneal

Thin superconducting films of magnesium diboride (MgB2) with Tc \approx 24K were prepared on various oxide substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) followed by an in-situ anneal. A systematic study of the influence of various in-situ annealing parameters shows an optimum temperature of about 600C in a background of 0.7 atm. of Ar/4%H2 for layers consisting of a mixture of magnesium and boron. Contrary to ex-situ approaches (e.g. reacting boron films with magnesium vapor at 900C), these films are processed below the decomposition temperature of MgB2. This may prove enabling in the formation of multilayers, junctions, and epitaxial films in future work. Issues related to the improvement of these films and to the possible in-situ growth of MgB2 at elevated temperature are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Study of the microwave electrodynamic response of MgB2 thin films

We present a study on the power dependence of the microwave surface impedance in thin films of the novel superconductor MgB2. 500 nm thick samples exhibiting critical temperatures ranging between 26 and 38 K are synthesized by an ex-situ post-anneal of e-beam evaporated boron in the presence of an Mg vapor at 900 C. Preliminary results on films grown in situ by a high rate magnetron sputtering technique from stoichiometric MgB2 and Mg targets are also reported. Microwave measurements have been carried out employing a dielectrically loaded niobium superconducting cavity operating at 19.8 GHz and 4 K. The study shows that the electrodynamic response of MgB2 films is presently dominated by extrinsic sources of dissipation, appearing already at low microwave power, likely to be ascribed to the presence of grain boundaries and normal inclusions in the samples.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the conference EUCAS 2001, submitted to Physica

High Critical Current Coated Conductors

One of the important critical needs that came out of the DOE’s coated conductor workshop was to develop a high throughput and economic deposition process for YBCO. Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique, the most critical steps in high technical micro fabrications, has been widely employed in semiconductor industry for various thin film growth. SuperPower has demonstrated that (Y,Gd)BCO films can be deposited rapid with world record performance. In addition to high critical current density with increased film thickness, flux pinning properties of REBCO films needs to be improved to meet the DOE requirements for various electric-power equipments. We have shown that doping with Zr can result in BZO nanocolumns, but at substantially reduced deposition rate. The primary purpose of this subtask is to develop high current density MOCVD-REBCO coated conductors based on the ion-beam assisted (IBAD)-MgO deposition process. Another purpose of this subtask is to investigate HTS conductor design optimization (maximize Je) with emphasis on stability and protection issues, and ac loss for REBCO coated conductors

Soft x-ray spectroscopy measurements of the p-like density of states of B in MgB2 and evidence for surface boron oxides on exposed surfaces

Soft X-ray absorption and fluorescence measurements are reported for the K-edge of B in MgB2. The measurements confirm a high density of B pxy(sigma)-states at the Fermi edge and extending to approximately 0.9 eV above the edge. A strong resonance is observed in elastic scattering through a core-exciton derived from out-of-plane pz(pi*)-states. Another strong resonance, observed in both elastic and inelastic spectra, is identified as a product of surface boron oxides.Comment: 7 pages total, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let