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ISSN: 2772-8307
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Characterising irradiation damage in REBCO coated conductor using multiple absorption edge polarisation dependent EXAFS
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Article Number:Article 100253
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Abstract
Corresponding email:jarrod.lewis1@diamond.ac.uk
Understanding how irradiation degrades superconductivity in REBCO coated conductor is a pressing field of research for the development of compact fusion devices. Here, defect formation in GdBa2Cu3O coated conductor is studied using a high dose of 2 MeV He ion irradiation. While laboratory based X-ray diffraction and magnetometry measurements show that the crystal structure becomes less well ordered with the loss of superconductivity in the material, transmission electron microscopy reveals a complex landscape of structural defects within the as-manufactured tape which complicate the identification and characterisation of irradiation induced structural changes. To resolve this, three sets of polarisation dependent extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy experiments were carried out to map the local structure of the Gd, Ba, and Cu atomic sites within the material, providing three independent probes for studying irradiation defects within the structurally anisotropic REBCO unit cell. Here the Ba and Cu environments were the more sensitive to the irradiation treatment, with only small changes to the Gd local structure observed. Both the Ba and Cu local structures retained much of the pristine structure in the a/b-plane following irradiation, with greater shifts evident in the c-axis aligned measurements. In the irradiated Cu K edge EXAFS analysis, a shifted peak in the c-axis aligned measurements is observed that is not compatible with the REBCO local structure. This is attributed to an O site irradiation defect motif consistent with a Frenkel defect.
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Enhanced the in-field critical current in thick MOD-YBCO films via energy-controlled Xe ion irradiation
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Article Number:Article 100255
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Abstract
Corresponding email:cbcai@t.shu.edu.cn
This study systematically investigates the effects of 45 MeV and 85 MeV Xe ions irradiation on the in-field performance and defect structures of 3.5 μm-thick MOD-YBCO superconducting tapes. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations reveal that 85 MeV irradiation produces continuous columnar tracks, while 45 MeV irradiation mainly generates discontinuous tracks. In-field transport measurements show that the critical current of the sample has increased by 2.4 times at 4.2 K and 10 T, from 354 A to 4 mm of the original sample to 874 A-4 mm after 45 MeV irradiation (fluence: 2 × 1011 ions/cm2), indicating a significant improvement in the field-dependent critical current density. XRD and Raman analyses further demonstrate that irradiation leads to lattice expansion along the c-axis and the formation of oxygen vacancies, enhancing flux pinning capability. This work confirms that the defect architecture can be effectively optimized by controllably tuning irradiated energy and fluence, thereby substantially improving the high-field current-carrying performance of thick YBCO tapes and providing key experimental evidence for their engineering applications in high magnetic fields.
Abstract
Corresponding email:rries@fsu.edu
REBCO coated conductors (CCs) exhibit strong critical current anisotropy with respect to the magnetic field orientation relative to the tape plane, Ic(θ, φ), which is crucial for high-field applications such as fusion magnets operating in complex field geometries. Quantitative characterization of this anisotropy using transport measurements becomes increasingly challenging at low temperatures, high magnetic fields, and high critical currents. In this work, we introduce a torque-magnetometry-based method that extends the capability of the standard two-dimensional (2D) torque measurements Ic(θ) limited by fixed φ = 0° to full three-dimensional (3D) characterization Ic(θ, φ) with variable angle φ, as well as improves the accuracy of the evaluated critical currents. The study combines an analytical framework with redesigned torque probe components and is demonstrated experimentally up to 45 T. The effects of sample geometry, current redistribution, and intrinsic longitudinal–transverse anisotropy are quantified and incorporated into the analysis. The experimental part focuses on principal field anisotropies, i.e. Ic(θ, 0°) and Ic(θ, 90°), corresponding to maximum (MLF) and variable Lorentz force (VLF) configurations, respectively. It was observed that their ratio follows higher-order angular dependence and increases with the applied magnetic field. The presented method enables rapid, non-destructive 3D anisotropy characterisation Ic(θ,φ,B,T) of the REBCO CCs in the temperature range 4.2 - 50 K and fields up to 45 T, extending anisotropy measurements into regimes difficult to access using conventional transport methods.
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