Epitaxially grown YBa 2 Cu 3 O x films have been irradiated with 173 MeV 129 Xe ions. A nonlinear decrease of the critical superconducting transition temperature T c and an exponential increase of the resistivity ρ is observed. The c -axis parameter is extended to about 12 Å with increasing Xe fluence and the twin boundaries disappear. The 1-2-3 phase is amorphized along the paths of the Xe ions within an area of 40 Å in diameter. A defect-induced enhancement of the critical current density j c in magnetic fields B is observed after low fluences only if the flux lines are aligned parallel to the amorphized ion traces.
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Roas et al. (1990) studied this question.