• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2022

We investigate the effect of surface disorder on the lower critical field (H_c1) of MgB₂ thin films with a thickness of 850 nm, where the disorder on the surface region is produced by the irradiation of 140 keV Co ions with the dose of 1 × 10¹⁴ ions/cm². The thickness of the damaged region by the irradiation is around 143 nm, corresponding to ~17% of the whole thickness of the film, thereby forming the disordered MgB₂ overlayer on the pure MgB₂ layer. The magnetic field dependence of magnetization, M(H), for the pristine MgB₂ thin film and the film with overlayer is measured at various temperatures, and H_c1 is determined from the difference (△M) between the Meissner line and magnetization signal with the criterion of △M = 10^-3 emu. Intriguingly, the film with the disordered overlayer shows a remarkably large H_c1(0) = 108 Oe compared to the H_c1(0) = 84 Oe of pristine film, indicating that the disordered MgB₂ overlayer on the pure MgB₂ layer serves to prevent the penetration of vortices into the sample. These results provide new ideas for improving the superheating field to design high-performance superconducting radio-frequency cavities.