The production of superconducting coatings for radio
frequency cavities is a rapidly developing field that
should ultimately lead to acceleration gradients greater
than those obtained by bulk Nb RF cavities. Optimizing
superconducting properties of Nb thin-films is therefore
essential. Nb films were deposited by magnetron
sputtering in pulsed DC mode onto Si (100) and MgO
(100) substrates and also by high impulse magnetron
sputtering (HiPIMS) onto Si (100), MgO (100) and
polycrystalline Cu. The films were characterised using
scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and DC
SQUID magnetometry