Thin films of YBaCuO high-temperature superconductor grown in a simplified magnetron sputterer and their microwave application

The physicochemical properties of YBa₂Cu₃O_7?δ high-temperature superconductor exclude designing standard magnetron sputterers and adopting standard film growth conditions that would ensure good and highly reproducible results. A simple and flexible magnetron sputterer making it possible to grow high-quality films (with a critical temperature of 90 K, a critical current density of 4 MA/cm², and a surface resistance of ≤0.5 mΘ at a frequency of 10 GHz and 77 K) is described. The high quality of the films is proved by successfully applying them in a microwave circuit demonstrating an intrinsic Q factor of 58 000 at a frequency of 70 MHz and 77 K, which is higher than the results obtained by other teams of researchers.