The effect of neutron irradiation upon the superconducting critical temperature of some transition-metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides

Samples of TiN, NbC, and Nb(CN) have been irradiated to various neutron doses in the Brookhaven High Flux Beam Reactor. Their superconducting critical temperatures are reduced at a rate which is much less than that for similarly irradiated high-Tc A15 superconductors. A dose of 1.5×1020 n/cm2 (E≳1 MeV) causes a reduction in Tc of 6–27%. This reduction may be explained in terms of the production of metal-lattice vacancies.