Production and identification of flux-pinning defects by electron irradiation in YBa sub 2 Cu sub 3 O sub 7 minus x single crystals

Journal Article · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.45.10677· OSTI ID:7306323

Giapintzakis, J; Lee, W C; Rice, J P; Ginsberg, D M; Robertson, I M ^[1]; Wheeler, R; Kirk, M A ^[2]; Ruault, M ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics and Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
2. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
3. Centre de Spectrometrie Nucleaire et de Spectrometrie de Masse, Orsay (France)

An enhancement in {ital J}{sub {ital c}} of YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7{minus}{ital x}} single crystals in a magnetic field is observed after irradiation with 1-MeV electrons. Typically, a factor-of-2 increase in {ital J}{sub {ital c}} is deduced from magnetic hysteresis loops at 10 K and 1 T with {bold H}{parallel}{ital c}. This enhancement is about 1/2 of that produced by proton and neutron irradiations under similar measurement conditions. {ital In} {ital situ} transmission-electron-microscopy studies found no visible defects induced by electron irradiation, which means that point defects or small clusters (of size {lt}2 nm) are responsible for the extra pinning. Annealing studies suggest that effective pinning centers for {bold H}{parallel}{ital c} do not include oxygen vacancies in the Cu-O chains. Based on calculations of cross sections for displacements on the different sublattices, and in conjunction with the results of a {ital J}{sub {ital c}} calculation by Kes, we suggest that the most likely pinning defect is the displacement of a Cu atom from the CuO{sub 2}-plane sites.

• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 7306323
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States) Vol. 45:18; ISSN PRBMD; ISSN 0163-1829
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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YTTRIUM COMPOUNDS
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