Electroless deposition of superconducting MgB2 films on various substrates

The superconducting properties of magnesium diboride (MgB2) films prepared by electroless deposition on various substrates including silver, gold and silicon are reported. In this study, MgB2 films were fabricated on silver, gold, and silicon using an electroless plating technique, while controlling the redox potential to improve the deposition quality. The structure, morphology, and superconducting properties of the samples were investigated using X-ray diffraction, magnetometry, scanning electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirmed that the films are polycrystalline MgB2 but also contain some impurity phases. All the MgB2 films show superconducting transitions near 39 K, the value for bulk MgB2, with the superconducting volume fraction ranging from approximately 1 to 2%. We find a strong dependence of film quality with the oxidation potential of the bath.