0000000000073243

AUTHOR

R.p. Griessen

Temperature and magnetic-field dependence of quantum creep in various high-Tcsuperconductors

To investigate the quantum tunneling of almost macroscopic vortex segments we measured the normalized relaxation rate Q of superconducting currents for various high-T{sub c} superconductors (HTS's) down to 100 mK in magnetic fields up to 7 T. At fields below {approx_equal}0.5 T, Q is essentially independent of T in the temperature regime between thermally activated and quantum motion as theoretically expected. However, at higher fields, we find an unexpected linear T dependence of Q persisting down to the lowest temperatures in all investigated samples. Since these compounds were chosen to represent the distinct classes of dirty and clean HTS's, the extrapolated Q(T=0) values are used to di…

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Relation between microstructure and transport properties of epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7-d thin films.

Abstract In order to understand the origin of the high critical current densities observed in thin superconducting films compared to single crystals we measured in several epitaxial YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ thin films the magnetic field and temperature dependence of the superconducting current density j s and the dynamical relaxation rate Q ≡ d ln j s / d ln( d B/ dt ). For all samples we found that (i) the superconducting current density j s is independent of magnetic field up to a certain field B Φ . The value of this field, which is sample dependent, decreases with increasing temperature; (ii) for fields B>B Φ , the superconducting current density falls off as B −1/2 over several decades; (iii) …

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Influence of micro-structure in the low temperature critical currents of YBa2Cu3O7?? thin films

Epitaxial YBa2Cu3O7−δ films nucleate in c-axis oriented single-crystalline islands. The surface of the single-crystalline SrTiO3 substrates exhibit steps of one third of the YBa2Cu3O7−δ c-axis. These steps generate a mismatch in the island boundaries between the CuO2 superconducting blocks. We show that these defect regions are strong candidates for being the pinning centers responsible for the large critical currents observed in Laser Ablated and Sputtered thin films.

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Origin of high critical currents in YBa2Cu3O7−δ superconducting thin films

Thin films of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7−δ exhibit both a large critical current (the superconducting current density generally lies between 1011 and 1012 A m−2 at 4.2 K in zero magnetic field) and a decrease in such currents with magnetic field that point to the importance of strong vortex pinning along extended defects1,2. But it has hitherto been unclear which types of defect—dislocations, grain boundaries, surface corrugations and anti-phase boundaries—are responsible. Here we make use of a sequential etching technique to address this question. We find that both edge and screw dislocations, which can be mapped quantitatively by this technique, are the linear defects t…

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Critical currents and micro-structure in YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films

In an attempt to clarify the origin of the large critical current densitiesJ c observed in Laser Ablated and Sputtered YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) thin films, we make a systematic study of the low temperatureJ c in samples carefully analysed using STM and AFM.J c (B) is determined from torque-magnetometry performed in ring-patterned thin films. Epitaxial YBCO films nucleate in c-axis oriented single-crystalline islands with sizes ranging between 200 and 700 nm. We show thatJ c can be mainly explained by vortex pinning localised in the island boundaries.

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