The effects of 137Cs and 60Co γ radiation on the magnetic susceptibility of BSCCO textured thin rods

Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox, superconducting thin rods textured by the laser floating zone melting method were irradiated with 1250 and 662 keV gamma rays. The behavior of some of its superconducting properties with the exposure dose was studied by the measurement of dynamic magnetic susceptibility. It was observed that, for different dose levels according to the energy of the incident radiation, the rods preserve their superconducting intragrain properties, evidencing the high resistance of the material to the gamma radiation damage. In all the cases it was verified that, with increasing exposure dose, the onset temperature of the superconducting transition increases. The possible mechanisms that should take place are analyzed in the text. The chi(ac) measurements also show the increasing behavior of the superconducting volume fraction in the sample with the exposure dose. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.