A sol-gel method for growing superconducting MgB2 films

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel sol-gel method for fabricating MgB2 superconducting films, demonstrating medium-quality films with promising properties for practical applications.

Contribution

The paper presents a new sol-gel process for MgB2 film growth, offering an alternative to existing techniques with potential for commercial production.

Findings

Superconducting transition temperature of ~37 K

Critical current density of ~5×10^6 A/cm^2 at 5 K

Critical field of ~19 T at 0 K

Abstract

In this paper we report a new sol-gel method for the fabrication of MgB2 films. Polycrystalline MgB2 films were prepared by spin-coating a precursor solution of Mg(BH_4)_2 diethyl ether on (001)Al2O3 substrates followed with annealing in Mg vapor. In comparison with the MgB2 films grown by other techniques, our films show medium qualities including a superconducting transition temperature of Tc ~ 37 K, a critical current density of Jc(5 K, 0 T) ~ 5 {\times} 10^6 A cm^{-2}, and a critical field of H_{c2}(0) ~ 19 T. Such a sol-gel technique shows potential in the commercial fabrication of practically used MgB2 films as well as MgB2 wires and tapes.