Highly effective mixed pinning landscape produced by combined proton and heavy-ion irradiations in commercial coated conductors

ORAL

Abstract

Particle irradiation is a very useful method to enhance the critical current density (J$_{c})$ in high T$_{c}$ superconductors. As the nature of the damage produced under given irradiation conditions is well studied, it also provides a valuable tool to engineer controlled pinning landscapes to improve our understanding of vortex matter. Recently, it has been shown that proton irradiation can produce significant further J$_{c}$ increase in commercial coated conductors (CC) with already high J$_{c}$. Here we report a further step towards J$_{c}$ design, by combining 4 MeV proton and 250 MeV Au irradiations on the same CC. We show that the J$_{c}$ improvement is better than what results from each individual irradiation, with columnar and random defects being dominant at low and high fields, respectively. Flux creep rates provide additional information about the vortex dynamics and depinning mechanisms in different regions of the Temperature-Field-Orientation phase diagram.

*Work supported by the Center for Emergent Superconductivity, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. D.O.E., Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences

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Authors

  • Leonardo Civale

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Lab
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA

  • Maxime Leroux

    • Argonne Natl Lab
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory

  • K.J. Kihlstrom

    • Argonne National Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago
    • Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
    • Argonne National Laboratory

  • Ulrich Welp

    • Argonne Natl Lab
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
    • Argonne National Labs
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory

  • Wai-Kwong Kwok

    • Argonne Natl Lab
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory

  • Marty Rupich

    • American Superconductor Corp., Devens, MA 01434, USA

  • Steven Fleshler

    • American Superconductor Corp., Devens, MA 01434, USA

  • Alex P. Malozemoff

    • American Superconductor Corp., Devens, MA 01434, USA

  • G. Ghigo

    • Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy

  • A. Kayani

    • Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo, MI 49009