Jr. Liu et al., RADIATION-DAMAGE AND FLUX-PINNING IN HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms, 80-1, 1993, pp. 1255-1258
Radiation damage and flux pinning of high temperature superconducting
(HTS) materials were studied with MeV ion beams and internal MeV ion i
rradiation by thermal neutron triggered reaction products. The materia
ls used included epitaxial thin film of YBCO, melt-textured YBCO and s
ingle crystal YBCO. The flux pinning was measured by a vibrating sampl
e magnetometer (VSM). The pinning mechanism in each material was radia
tion-induced weak pinning centers, resulting in an enhancement of crit
ical current density (J(c)) by a factor of 6 and 18 in single crystal
and melt-textured YBCO, respectively. Details of neutron-triggered int
ernal irradiation and its possible application to bulk materials are d
iscussed, The defect structure was observed with transmision electron
microscopy (TEM) and compared with TRIM simulations.