Steps in the Negative-Differential-Conductivity Regime of a Superconductor

Current-voltage characteristics were measured in the mixed state of Y1Ba2Cu3O(7-delta) superconducting films in the regime where flux flow becomes unstable and the differential conductivity dj/dE becomes negative. Under conditions where its negative slope is steep, the j(E) curve develops a pronounced staircase like pattern. We attribute the steps in j(E) to the formation of a dynamical phase consisting of the succesive nucleation of quantized distortions in the local vortex velocity and flux distribution within the moving flux matter.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Nucleation of Stable Superconductivity in YBCO-Films

By means of the linear dynamic conductivity, inductively measured on epitaxial films between 30mHz and 30 MHz, the transition line $T_g (B)$ to generic superconductivity is studied in fields between B=0 and 19T. It follows closely the melting line $T_m (B)$ described recently in terms of a blowout of thermal vortex loops in clean materials. The critical exponents of the correlation length and time near $T_g (B)$, however, seem to be dominated by some intrinsic disorder. Columnar defects produced by heavy-ion irradiation up to field-equivalent-doses of $B_{\phi} = 10T$ lead to a disappointing reduction of $T_g (B \to 0)$ while for $B>B_{\phi}$ the generic line of the pristine film is recovered. These novel results are also discussed in terms of a loop-driven destruction of generic superconductivity.Comment: 11 pages including 7 EPS figures, accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Spring Meeting of the German Physical Society, Muenster 1999,Festkoerperprobleme/Advances in Solid State Physics 199

Possibility of the new type phase transition

The scalar field theory and the scalar electrodynamics quantized in the flat gap are considered. The dynamical effects arising due to the boundary presence with two types of boundary conditions (BC) satisfied by scalar fields are studied. It is shown that while the Neumann BC lead to the usual scalar field mass generation, the Dirichlet BC give rise to the dynamical mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking. Due to the later, there arises the possibility of the new type phase transition from the normal to spontaneously broken phase. The decreasing in the characteristic size of the quantization region (the gap size here) and increasing in the temperature compete with each other, tending to transport the system in the spontaneously broken and in the normal phase, respectively. The system evolves with a combined parameter, simultaneously reflecting the change in temperature and in the size. As a result, at the critical value of this parameter there occurs the phase transition from the normal phase to the spontaneously broken one. In particular, the usual massless scalar electrodynamics transforms to the Higgs model

Investigation of the kinetics of sulphuric acid leaching of zinc from calamine

This article aims at the research of kinetics of the sulphuric acid leaching of zinc from calamine (hemimorphite) of Shaimerden deposits. The ratio of zinc extraction from calamine to water-soluble zinc sulphate was determined at various leaching durations and its temperatures. The concentration of the sulfuric acid solution, the flow rate of this solution and the size of the calamine particles, selected in the course of this work for leaching zinc from this mineral with the specified solution, made it possible to establish the value of the “apparent” activation energy of the reaction of calamine with sulfuric acid, amounting to 3,075 kJ / mol

Observation of the parallel-magnetic-field-induced superconductor-insulator transition in thin amorphous InO films

We study the response of a thin superconducting amorphous InO film with variable oxygen content to a parallel magnetic field. A field-induced superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) is observed that is very similar to the one in normal magnetic fields. As the boson-vortex duality, which is the key-stone of the theory of the field-induced SIT, is obviously absent in the parallel configuration, we have to draw conclusion about the theory insufficiency.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Transport and Magnetic Properties of R1-xAxCoO3 (R=La, Pr and Nd; A=Ba, Sr and Ca)

Transport and magnetic measurements have been carried out on perovskite Co-oxides R1-xAxCoO3 (R=La, Pr, and Nd; A=Ba, Sr and Ca; 0<x<0.5: All sets of the R and A species except Nd1-xBaxCoO3 have been studied.). With increasing the Sr- or Ba-concentration x, the system becomes metallic ferromagnet with rather large magnetic moments. For R=Pr and Nd and A=Ca, the system approaches the metal- insulator phase boundary but does not become metallic. The magnetic moments of the Ca-doped systems measured with the magnetic field H=0.1 T are much smaller than those of the Ba- and Sr-doped systems. The thermoelectric powers of the Ba- and Sr-doped systems decrease from large positive values of lightly doped samples to negative ones with increasing doping level, while those of Ca-doped systems remain positive. These results can be understood by considering the relationship between the average ionic radius of R1-xAx and the energy difference between the low spin and intermediate spin states. We have found the resistivity-anomaly in the measurements of Pr1-xCaxCoO3 under pressure in the wide region of x, which indicates the existence of a phase transition different from the one reported in the very restricted region of x~0.5 at ambient pressure [Tsubouchi et al. Phys. Rev. B 66 (2002) 052418.]. No indication of this kind of transition has been observed in other species of R.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 72 (2003) No.

Defect-unbinding and the Bose-glass transition in layered superconductors

The low-field Bose-glass transition temperature in heavy-ion irradiated Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8+d increases progressively with increasing density of irradiation-induced columnar defects, but saturates for densities in excess of 1.5 x10^9 cm^-2. The maximum Bose-glass temperature corresponds to that above which diffusion of two-dimensional pancake vortices between different vortex lines becomes possible, and above which the ``line-like'' character of vortices is lost. We develop a description of the Bose-glass line that is in excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental line obtained for widely different values of track density and material parameters.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let