Neon ion Irradiation studies on MgB2 Superconductor

TL;DR

This study investigates the effects of 160 MeV Neon ion irradiation on MgB2 superconductors, revealing minimal change in critical temperature but increased resistivity due to damage in the bonding network.

Contribution

It provides detailed analysis of irradiation effects on MgB2, including resistivity changes and bonding network damage, with quantitative parameters extracted from resistivity data.

Findings

Critical temperature remains stable except at highest dose.

Resistivity increases with irradiation dose.

Damage to the B bonding network explains resistivity increase.

Abstract

160 MeV Neon ion irradiation has been carried out on MgB2 polycrystalline pellets at various doses. There has not been any significant change in Tc except at the highest dose of 1x10^15 ions/cm^2. Increase in resistivity has been noticed. Resistivity data has been fitted with Bloch-Gruneisen function and the values of Debye temperature, residual resistivity and temperature coefficient of resistivity have been extracted for irradiated as well as unirradiated samples. The increase in the resistivity of irradiated samples has been explained in the light of damage in the 3D pi bonding network of B.