INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF SLOW NEUTRON IRRADIATION ON HALOGEN-DOPED HIGH-T_c SUPERCONDUCTORS AND ITS MECHANISM

Irradiation effect of low-fluence (-10⁸ n/cm² ) slow neutrons on halogen-doped superconductors is presented in this paper. And the mechanism of the effect is also described from the viewpoint of nuclear physics for both fast and slow neutrons on high-temperature superconductors (HTSC). It is shown ex-perimentally and theoretically that slow neutrons of low fluence has a similar irradiation effect to that of fast neutron beams with an energy E_n>0.1 MeV and fluence 10¹⁶-10¹⁸ n/cm²-However,quite differ-ent mechanisms are involved in them: Fast neutrons transfer their energies through elastic scattering in HTSC, whereas slow neutrons give off their energies during the slow neutron capture (n, \gamma) reaction.