The microstructure study of neutron irradiation effect on superconductor YBCO

Since high-Tc YBCO superconductors were discovered, great efforts have been made to increase their critical current density. Previous reports have shown that it could be increased if the sample of YBa2Cu3O7-δ was irradiated by a neutron beam for a certain fluence. But up to now, no investigations of the microstructural mechanism underlying this phenomenon have been reported. In this paper we present transmission electron microscope results on the microstructure of a YBCO superconductor as a function of neutron irradiation fluence. We found that neutron irradiation could induce structural defects, such as dislocation loops in the crystal and a short-range order substructure. (author)