Radiation effects on iron-based superconductors

This article reviews the results of irradiation experiments on iron-based superconductors, with particular emphasis on neutron irradiation. These experiments were either done to foster the theoretical understanding of superconductivity in these compounds by investigating the influence of impurity scattering on the fundamental superconducting properties or to investigate vortex physics and to benchmark flux pinning in view of applications. Results on the most explored iron-based compounds are summarized and compared with data on metallic superconductors, cuprates, and MgB 2 . Similarities and differences are discussed as well as the influence of the type and energy of the particles used for the experiments.