Investigation of Radiation Affected High Temperature Superconductors - YBCO

In this paper, high temperature superconductors are studied in terms of radiation stability, which is necessary for application in fusion reactors. Perspective superconducting materials based on YBCO (Perkovskite structure) were measured by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy. Measurements were performed for samples prior to and after fast neutron irradiation in TRIGA MARK II reactor in Vienna. The samples demonstrated accumulation of Cu-O di-vacancies due to the irradiation. Nevertheless, the structure showed regeneration during thermal treatment by defects recombination. Positron spectroscopy results were complemented with values of critical temperature, which also showed changes of superconducting properties after the irradiation and the annealing.