Oral: Effect of Variable Energy Proton Irradiations in Thin-Film YBCO-1237 Superconductors

We investigated the effect of proton irradiation on the superconducting and normal state properties of thin-film YBCO-1237 superconductors (T_c = 90 K). Two different proton beams of energies 0.6 MeV and 1.7 MeV were used. After conducting a series of irradiations and resistance measurements, we obtained the relationship between the critical temperature (T_c) and dimensionless scattering rate (g) for both 0.6 MeV and 1.7 MeV proton beams and found that the 1.7 MeV proton beam results better approximate the generalized d-wave Abrikosov-Gor'kov theory than the 0.6 MeV results. Interestingly, both proton irradiation results approximate the theory better than the previous electron irradiation reports. These are unexpected outcomes since electron irradiation is known to be the most effective in suppressing superconductivity compared to other heavier ion irradiations including protons. The details of experimental setup and results will be discussed.