Designing high-performance superconductors with nanoparticle inclusions: Comparisons to strong pinning theory

One of the most promising routes for achieving high critical currents in superconductors is to incorporate dispersed, non-superconducting nanoparticles to control the dissipative motion of vortices. However, these inclusions reduce the overall superconducting volume and can strain the interlaying superconducting matrix, which can detrimentally reduce Tc. Consequently, an optimal balance must be achieved between the nanoparticle density np and size d. Determining this balance requires garnering a better understanding of vortex–nanoparticle interactions, described by strong pinning theory. Here, we map the dependence of the critical current on nanoparticle size and density in (Y0.77, Gd0.23)Ba2Cu3O7−δ films in magnetic fields of up to 35 T and compare the trends to recent results from time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau simulations. We identify consistency between the field-dependent critical current Jc(B) and expectations from strong pinning theory. Specifically, we find that Jc ∝ B−α, where α decreases from 0.66 to 0.2 with increasing density of nanoparticles and increases roughly linearly with nanoparticle size d/ξ (normalized to the coherence length). At high fields, the critical current decays faster (∼B−1), suggesting that each nanoparticle has captured a vortex. When nanoparticles capture more than one vortex, a small, high-field peak is expected in Jc(B). Due to a spread in defect sizes, this novel peak effect remains unresolved here. Finally, we reveal that the dependence of the vortex creep rate S on nanoparticle size and density roughly mirrors that of α, and we compare our results to low-T nonlinearities in S(T) that are predicted by strong pinning theory.