Microwave properties of MgB2 thin films prepared in situ by thermal evaporation combined with sputtering

Superconducting MgB2 thin films were prepared in situ using a combination of rf magnetron sputtering of B and thermal evaporation of Mg. The films exhibited Tc of up to 36 K. The microwave measurements were performed on 14 x 14 mm2 films using both Cu-shielded and Nb-shielded sapphire puck resonators at the frequency of 18.8 GHz. The hf surface resistance (RS) and the change of the hf surface reactance (ΔXS) were determined. The films exhibited low RS matching the literature results for high-quality MgB2 films. Below 3K RS reached 3-5 μΩ which was the resolution limit of our measurement. The temperature dependences of both RS and ΔXS were in good agreement with BCS theory. From the RS(T) dependence we obtained an energy gap Δ(0) ∼ 3 meV. The measured variation of the London penetration depth with temperature, ΔλL(T), was also in good agreement with the BCS model. Using the BCS relation between the energy gap and the penetration depth we fitted our experimental ΔλL(T) data and obtained λL(0) values, which ranged for different films from 85 to 100 nm