Significant improvement of activation energy in MgB2/Mg2Si multilayer films

We obtained a MgB2/Mg2Si multilayer structure by sequentially switching a stoichiometric MgB2 target and a Si target during off-axis pulsed-laser deposition. The transmission-electron-microscopic cross-sectional image of the resulting film exhibits a layered structure with each MgB2 layer being 40–50 nm thick and the Mg2Si interlayers about 5 nm thick. A clearly enhanced anisotropy in the irreversibility lines and the vortex activation energy was observed. Pinning and the flux flow activation energy are significantly increased in parallel applied fields.