Growth of HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8 thin films using stable Re0.1Ba2Ca2Cu3Ox precursor by pulsed laser deposition

High quality c-axis oriented ${\mathrm{HgBa}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{Ca}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{\mathrm{3}}{\mathrm{O}}_{\mathrm{8}}$ thin films have been fabricated with the stable Re-doped ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{Ca}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{\mathrm{3}}{\mathrm{O}}_x$ precursor powder by pulsed laser deposition followed by postannealing without any special handling. As-grown films on (100) ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_{\mathrm{3}}$ exhibit a zero-resistance transition ${\mathrm{(T}}_{\mathrm{c,}\mathrm{zero}})$ at ∼131 K with a narrow transition width $\text{ΔT∼1.5\hspace{0.17em}}\mathrm{K}$ after oxygen annealing at 340 °C for 12 h. The critical current densities are observed ${\text{1.1×10}}^7\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{A/cm}}^{\mathrm{2}}$ at 10 K and ${\text{1.2×10}}^5\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{A/cm}}^{\mathrm{2}}$ at 120 K in zero field. The x-ray diffraction pattern indicates highly c-axis oriented thin films normal to the substrate plane containing a minor ${\mathrm{HgBa}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{CaCu}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{O}}_{\mathrm{6}}$ phase. The scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that the surface morphology of the film is well connected platelike crystals but reveals ${\mathrm{Ba–Cu–O}}_x$ impurities are uniformly scattered across the film surface.