Particle Irradiation Induced Defects in High Temperature Superconductors

We use irradiation with 50-MeV Cu-ions to create vortex pinning defects in high-temperature superconducting Y 1 Ba 2 Cu 3 O 7-x coated conductors using a beam-rastering approach that allows for the uniform irradiation of large ample areas. Our samples contain barium zirconate nanorods as pre-existing vortex pinning defects. By irradiating the samples at angles of 0 o , 15 o and 30 o from the crystallographic c-axis we explore the interplay between pre-existing and irradiation-induced pinning and find that irradiation at 30 o leads to a moderate enhancement of J c at 5 K at high fields (greater than 2 Tesla). In contrast, J c was suppressed for all temperatures and fields for other angles of irradiation. Optimized particle irradiation procedures offer a way for improving the performance of high-temperature superconducting wires for use in high magnetic fields without the need for changing wire synthesis protocols.