Heavy ion irradiation of high-temperature-superconductors: Material modifications and influence on pinning mechanisms

Many properties of HTSC's show a strong dependence on preparation induced defects as well as on the structure related anisotropy. The examination of the influence of artificially created defects on these properties can help to provide a better understanding of the relations between the structural and the superconducting parameters. In this contribution we present results of irradiation experiments performed on epitaxial YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ (Y-123) thin films (using various projectiles) to study effects on critical temperature T c , resistivity ϱ and critical current density j c , and on Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+x (Bi-2212) single crystals (using 500 MeV I ions) to study effects on the behaviour of this compound in the mixed state.