Heavy-ion damage to magnesium diboride films: Electrical transport-current characterization

The use of magnesium diboride in superconducting magnets, transmission lines, or other large-scale applications depends on the transport-current characteristics of this material in magnetic field, and how they compare to the properties of conventional and high-temperature superconductors. Thin films of boron grown on sapphire substrates during electron-beam evaporation were exposed to Mg vapor to produce 0.5-μm thick layers of the metallic compound MgB₂. Four-terminal measurements of their voltage-current relations, E(J), were carried out before and after exposure to B_ø=1-T and higher doses of 1-Gev U ions. These doses lowered critical temperatures T_c≈39 K less than 0.1 degree, raised the normal-state resistivity, and reduced the loss-free critical current density, J_c. Higher doses added little. The reduction of current densities was greater in the presence of applied magnetic field greater than 0.1 T.