Characterization of off-axis MgB2 epitaxial thin films for planar junctions

Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we perform a full mapping of the quasiparticle density of states of magnesium diboride (MgB2) epitaxial thin films grown on (110) yttrium stabilized zirconia (YSZ) by hybrid physical-chemical vapor deposition. The films have critical temperatures of 40 K. X-ray measurements show an epitaxial MgB2 growth having the c-axis tilted by 32° with respect to the normal to the substrate, consistent with the atomic force microscopy images of the sample. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy clearly finds that the spectroscopic peak associated to the π gap is reduced on most of the film surface and the feature representative of the σ gap is present, with different intensity, on the majority of the sample’s surface, which is consistent with x-ray measurements.