ION-BEAM IRRADIATION STUDIES OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS

We review two aspects of irradiation effects in high temperature superconductors (HTSC). First, irradiation does not just lead to random disordering of these materials. Intergranular couplings, nonstoichiometric and/or locally disordered zones, incompletely occupied sublattice planes and so on are all particularly sensitive to ion beam interactions, as shown by both structural and conduction properties. Secondly, on a more microscopic scale, controlled disordering of the HTSC by ion beam irradiation allows experiments that probe the basic mechanisms of transport and superconductivity in the HTSC. Specifically, we present a quantitative analysis of the irradiation-induced degradation of the superconducting critical temperature. © 1990.