Scaling Laws for Ion Irradiation Experiments in Iron-Based Superconductors (IBS)

Ion irradiation is a useful tool to introduce disorder in materials, and hence engineer their properties. In superconductors the increased disorder enhances carrier scattering, decreasing the critical temperature, and provides pinning centers, increasing the critical current. However, virtually infinite combinations of ions and energies exist, making it difficult to choose the best conditions for a desired outcome. We investigated how the properties of a large set of Iron-based superconductors of the 122 family are modified by ion irradiation with different beams and energies. From this broad and comprehensive set of experimental data, clear scaling laws emerge, valid in the range of moderate disorder, providing a useful rule-of-thumb to design irradiation experiments.