High-field critical current enhancement by irradiation induced correlated and random defects in (Ba{sub 0.6}K{sub 0.4})Fe{sub 2}As{sub 2}

Journal Article · Mon Nov 11 04:00:00 EST 2013 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4829524· OSTI ID:22217809

Kihlstrom, K. J.; Crabtree, G. W. ^[1]; Fang, L.; Jia, Y.; Shen, B.; Koshelev, A. E.; Welp, U.; Kwok, W. -K. ^[1]; Kayani, A. ^[2]; Zhu, S. F. ^[3]; Wen, H. -H. ^[4]

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1. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008 (United States)
3. Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
4. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Department of Physics, Center for Superconducting Physics and Materials, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China)

Mixed pinning landscapes in superconductors are emerging as an effective strategy to achieve high critical currents in high, applied magnetic fields. Here, we use heavy-ion and proton irradiation to create correlated and point defects to explore the vortex pinning behavior of each and combined constituent defects in the iron-based superconductor Ba{sub 0.6}K{sub 0.4}Fe{sub 2}As{sub 2} and find that the pinning mechanisms are non-additive. The major effect of p-irradiation in mixed pinning landscapes is the generation of field-independent critical currents in very high fields. At 7 T ‖ c and 5 K, the critical current density exceeds 5 MA/cm{sup 2}.

• OSTI ID: 22217809
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 103; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ADDITIVES
CRITICAL CURRENT
HEAVY IONS
IRON
IRON ARSENIDES
IRRADIATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC FLUX
MAGNETIZATION
POINT DEFECTS
PROTONS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY