Study of irradiated superconducting films by SPM techniques

YBa₂Cu₃O₇-x and NbC superconducting films have been irradiated with helium ions with energies of 1.2 MeV and 200 keV, respectively, up to a dose of 4 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻². After that, they were investigated using an NTEGRA Aura probe nanolaboratory in the atomic force microscopy mode. A degradation of physical parameters, as well as damage formation in the form of craters of tens nanometers in size, was observed after irradiation. Etched regions of ∼0.6 μm in size were formed at the places of accumulation of damages.