Flux pinning dynamics in optimally proton irradiated REBCO coated conductors

Abstract Particle irradiation offers a route to incorporating additional flux pinning centres in high-temperature superconducting wires with minimal disruption to the pre-existing defect landscape, thereby further enhancing the critical current in a controllable fashion. This work is a comprehensive study of the fluence-dependence of proton irradiation using protons of two energies, 2.5 and 1.2 MeV, in enhancing the critical current performance in commercially available (Y,Dy)Ba 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ coated conductors. A sequence of fluences covering the range from 1 × 10 15 to 5 × 10 16 protons cm −2 was used in the irradiation process to study the flux pinning in this material. The resulting samples were characterized using field angle-dependent transport critical current measurements over a range of temperatures from 20 K to 77.5 K and magnetic fields up to 8 T, thus covering the wide range of operating conditions. Optimisation of fluence for highest performance at each energy resulted in a similar level of isotropic critical current enhancement, a factor 2.6 improvement at 20 K and 8 T, but with a significant difference in the optimised fluence in each case. The lower energy 1.2 MeV protons produce this enhancement at a three-fold lower fluence compared to 2.5 MeV protons, a result of their higher electronic energy loss. The different samples are analysed within the framework of the maximum entropy model, helping to understand the vortex dynamics before and after irradiation.