Modification of the high-Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−x by particle-beam irradiation

The Effect of Proton Irradiation on the Critical Current of Commercially Produced YBCO Conductors

“…Radiation effects in YBCO have been the subject of many experiments since this material was first discovered 20 years ago. Most of these studies used thin films which showed much bigger changes in and , for example, see [5], [6].…”

Effects of 1-MeV proton irradiation in Hg-based cuprate thin films

“…The effect of ion-beam irradiation has been extensively studied in many high-T c superconductors ͑HTSc's͒ during the past ten years. This study has yielded many interesting results, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] including the most striking and puzzling observation by Summers et al of a universal linear dependence of the decrease rate of superconducting transition temperature (T c ) with ion dose (dT c /d) on the nonionizing energy loss of the incident ion beams. 12 Second, ion-beam irradiation has been used to produce magnetic flux pinning centers in HTSc's.…”

“…This includes creation of weak pinning centers via displacive interactions in low-energy light-ion irradiation [13][14][15][16][17] and strong pinning centers in columnar defects produced by high-energy heavy-ion irradiation. 13,18 The newly discovered Hg-based cuprates (HgBa 2 Ca nϪ1 Cu n O 2nϩ2ϩ␦ nϭ1, 2,3,4) have attracted much attention because of their record high T c above 130 K that makes-them very promising for many commercial applications. Moreover, HgBa 2 CaCu 2 O 6ϩ␦ ͑Hg-1212͒ and HgBa 2 Ca 2 Cu 3 O 8ϩ␦ ͑Hg-1223͒ phases have a relatively high irreversibility line, staying between that for YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7Ϫ␦ ͑YBCO͒ and that for Bi-and/or Tl-based compounds.…”