Enhancement of the high-magnetic-field critical current density of superconducting MgB2 by proton irradiation

Y. Bugoslavsky (), L. F. Cohen, G. K. Perkins, M. Polichetti, T. J. Tate, R. Gwilliam and A. D. Caplin
Additional contact information
Y. Bugoslavsky: Centre for High Temperature Superconductivity, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College
L. F. Cohen: Centre for High Temperature Superconductivity, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College
G. K. Perkins: Centre for High Temperature Superconductivity, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College
M. Polichetti: Centre for High Temperature Superconductivity, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College
T. J. Tate: Centre for High Temperature Superconductivity, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College
R. Gwilliam: EPSRC Ion Beam Centre, University of Surrey
A. D. Caplin: Centre for High Temperature Superconductivity, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College

Nature, 2001, vol. 411, issue 6837, 561-563

Abstract: Abstract Magnesium diboride, MgB2, has a relatively high superconducting transition temperature1, placing it between the families of low- and high-temperature (copper oxide based) superconductors. Supercurrent flow in MgB2 is unhindered by grain boundaries2,3, making it potentially attractive for technological applications in the temperature range 20–30 K. But in the bulk material, the critical current density (Jc) drops rapidly with increasing magnetic field strength4. The magnitude and field dependence of the critical current are related to the presence of structural defects that can ‘pin’ the quantized magnetic vortices that permeate the material, and a lack of natural defects in MgB2 may be responsible for the rapid decline of Jc with increasing field strength3. Here we show that modest levels of atomic disorder induced by proton irradiation enhance the pinning of vortices, thereby significantly increasing Jc at high field strengths. We anticipate that either chemical doping or mechanical processing should generate similar levels of disorder, and so achieve performance that is technologically attractive in an economically viable way.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35079024 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:411:y:2001:i:6837:d:10.1038_35079024

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35079024

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().