Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published 1997 | public
Journal Article

Getting off the track

Abstract

The production of MeV/amu heavy-ion and MeV cluster-ion beams has allowed continuous damage tracks to be made in a wide variety of materials. Using simple phenomenological models of the track-formation process one can estimate in advance the morphology of the tracks that will result from a particular set of irradiation parameters, i.e., target material, ion type and energy. In this talk I shall discuss the use of these models and how they are applied in a specific example: the pinning of quantized magnetic-flux vortices in a high-temperature superconductor. For this application one must also employ models for the interaction of the vortex and the column of damage. On the basis of such simulations it is found that although damage tracks are extremely useful for increasing the flux pinning, and hence the critical current, it would be even better if one could control the track positions and radii over a wider range of values. A new development in nanotechnology will be discussed that may, indeed, allow this to be accomplished easily and inexpensively.

Additional Information

© 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. I wish to acknowledge the contributions of my colleagues to the work reviewed here -- especially N.-C. Yeh and S. M. Maurer. The latter's participation was made possible by support from Caltech's Ph11 and SURF programs for undergraduate research. Supported in part by the National Science Foundation [grant DMR93-18931].

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 17, 2023