In situ low-temperature deposition and properties of Bi(Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering

Superconducting thin films of the Bi‐Sr‐Ca‐Cu‐O system with and without lead doping were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering onto (100)MgO substrates. Although the superconducting properties of the thin films are very sensitive to the deposition and soak temperatures, reproducible results were obtained. Our in situ deposition process with processing temperatures not exceeding 600 °C yielded films with zero resistance at 82 K and Jc=7×105 A cm−2 measured at 4 K for the two‐layer Bi phase. Our initial results with lead‐doped Bi‐Sr‐Ca‐Cu‐O thin films will also be discussed.