  Thin films of the recently discovered magnesium diboride (MgB2) intermetalic
superconducting compound have been grown using a magnetron sputtering
deposition technique followed by in-situ annealing at 830 C. High quality films
were obtained on both sapphire and MgO substrates. The best films showed
maximum Tc = 35 K (onset), a transition width of 0.5 K, a residual resistivity
ratio up to 1.6, a low temperature critical current density Jc > 1 MA/cm2 and
anisotropic critical field with gamma = 2.5 close to the values obtained for
single crystals. The preparation technique can be easily scaled to produce
large area in-situ films.
