Abstract
We have studied effects of in-situ annealing on the fabrication of superconducting MgB$_2$ thin films prepared by rf magnetron co-sputtering. The Films were deposited on A1$_2$O$_3$ (1102) substrates at room temperature by using Mg and B targets. To trap remnant $O_2$ gas in the chamber, we used 20 mtorr Af sputter-gas balanced with 5 mol % of H$_2$ gas. To enhance adhesion to the substrate a thin layer of B was deposited prior to the codeposition of Mg and B. After completion of the film deposition, an additional Mg layer was deposited on top to compensate for Mg loss during the subsequent in-situ annealing. We have investigated the effects of two most important annealing parameters that are the Mg-to-B composition ratio and the annealing temperature. The range of the Mg-to-B composition ratio was from 0.42 to 0.85, and that of the annealing temperature was 500 $^{\circ}C$∼750 $^{\circ}C$. The Best result was obtained for the composition ratio of about 10% Mg excess from the stoichiometry and the annealing temperature of 700 $^{\circ}C$. Based on these results, we obtained films with T$_{c}$ : 36.5 K by further refining the fabrication process.s.
