In order to introduce a high density of homogeneously distributed defects, melt-textured samples were shock-compacted at pressures of up to 12.6GPa, using orientations which were favorable to slip on the basal planes. It was found that this resulted in an almost uniform defect density which was 2 to 3 orders of magnitude higher than of as-received melt-textured material. When a shocked disk was annealed in O, ground, sieved, and magnetically aligned, the critical current density was enhanced by 2 to 3 times as compared with the original value. It was concluded that the increase in dislocation density increased flux pinning.

M.J.Kramer, R.W.McCallum, W.J.Nellis, U.Balachandran: Journal of Electronic Materials, 1994, 23[11], 1111-5