Irradiation and annealing effects of deuteron irradiated NbTi and V3Ga multifilamentary composite wires at low temperature

To study the effects of low temperature irradiation on technological type II-superconductors, NbTi and V3Ga multifilamentary composite wires, the critical current Icand the transition temperature Tcwere measured before and after irradiation with 50 MeV deuterons at 10 K and 15 K, respectively. While the irradiation effects on Icand Tcof NbTi are substantially unaffected, the V3Ga wires undergo a reduction in Icof about 50 % and Tcdecreases from 14.7 ± 0.1 K to 12.3 ± 0.1 K at a total deuteron flux of 2.7 × 10¹⁷cm^-2. Annealing experiments at room temperature and 100° C show only a small recovery of the superconducting properties up to 15 %. The field dependence of the volume pinning force densities Pvwas determined and the results are shown to be consistent with a qualitative dynamic pinning model.