| Summary: | Raising the critical current density <i>J</i><sub>c</sub> in magnetic fields is crucial to applications such as rotation machines, generators for wind turbines and magnet use in medical imaging machines. The increase in <i>J</i><sub>c</sub> has been achieved by introducing structural defects including precipitates and vacancies. Recently, a low-energy ion irradiation has been revisited as a practically feasible approach to create nanoscale defects, resulting in an increase in <i>J</i><sub>c</sub> in magnetic fields. In this paper, we report the effect of proton irradiation with 1.5 MeV on superconducting properties of iron–chalcogenide FeSe<sub>0.5</sub>Te<sub>0.5</sub> films through the transport and magnetization measurements. The 1.5 MeV proton irradiation with 1 × 10<sup>16</sup> p/cm<sup>2</sup> yields the highest <i>J</i><sub>c</sub> increase, approximately 30% at 5–10 K and below 1 T without any reduction in <i>T</i><sub>c</sub>. These results indicate that 1.5 MeV proton irradiations could be a practical tool to enhance the performance of iron-based superconducting tapes under magnetic fields.
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