Effect of mixed pinning landscapes produced by 6 MeV oxygen irradiation on the resulting critical current densities Jc in 1.3 µm thick GdBa2Cu3O7-d coated conductors grown by co-evaporation

We report the influence of crystalline defects introduced by 6 MeV 16O3+ irradiation on the critical current densities Jc and flux creep rates in 1.3 µm thick GdBa2Cu3O7-δ coated conductor produced by co-evaporation. Pristine films with pinning produced mainly by random nanoparticles with diameter close to 50 nm were irradiated with doses between 2 × 1013 cm−2 and 4 × 1014 cm−2. The irradiations were performed with the ion beam perpendicular to the surface of the samples. The Jc and the flux creep rates were analyzed for two magnetic field configurations: magnetic field applied parallel (H║c) and at 45° (H║45°) to the c-axis. The results show that at temperatures below 40 K the in-field Jc dependences can be significantly improved by irradiation. For doses of 1 × 1014 cm−2 the Jc values at μ0H = 5 T are doubled without affecting significantly the Jc at small fields. Analyzing the flux creep rates as function of the temperature in both magnetic field configurations, it can be observed that the irradiation suppresses the peak associated with double-kink relaxation and increases the flux creep rates at intermediate and high temperatures. Under 0.5 T, the flux relaxation for H‖c and H||45° in pristine films presents characteristic glassy exponents μ = 1.63 and μ = 1.45, respectively. For samples irradiated with 1 × 1014 cm−2, these values drop to μ = 1.45 and μ = 1.24, respectively