768 research outputs found
On temperature-dependent anisotropies of upper critical field and London penetration depth
We show on a few examples of one-band materials with spheroidal Fermi
surfaces and anisotropic order parameters that anisotropies of the
upper critical field and of the London penetration depth
depend on temperature, the feature commonly attributed to multi-band
superconductors. The parameters and may have
opposite temperature dependencies or may change in the same direction depending
on Fermi surface shape and on character of the gap nodes. For two-band systems,
the behavior of anisotropies is affected by the ratios of bands densities of
states, Fermi velocities, anisotropies, and order parameters. We investigate in
detail the conditions determining the directions of temperature dependences of
the two anisotropy factors
Collapse of the critical state in superconducting niobium
Giant abrupt changes in the magnetic flux distribution in niobium foils were
studied by using magneto-optical visualization, thermal and magnetic
measurements. Uniform flux jumps and sometimes almost total catastrophic
collapse of the critical state are reported. Results are discussed in terms of
thermomagnetic instability mechanism with different development scenarios.Comment: arXiv.org produced artifacts in color images (three versions were
attempts to make better images). Download clean PDF and watch video-figures
at: "http://cmp.ameslab.gov/supermaglab/video/Nb.html
Magnetic nanoparticles as efficient bulk pinning centers in type-II superconductors
Enhancement of flux pinning by magnetic nanoparticles embedded into the bulk
of type-2 superconductor is studied both theoretically and experimentally.
Magnetic part of the pinning force associated with the interaction between a
spherical magnetic inclusion and an Abrikosov vortex was calculated in the
London approximation. Calculations are supported by the experimental results
obtained on sonochemically modified MgB2 superconductor with embedded magnetic
Fe2O3 nanoparticles and compared to MgB2 with nonmagnetic Mo2O5 pinning centers
of similar concentration and particle size distribution. It is shown that
ferromagnetic nanoparticles result in a considerable enhancement of vortex
pinning in large-kappa type-2 superconductors.Comment: PDF, 14 page
Magnetic irreversibility and Verwey transition in nano-crystalline bacterial magnetite
The magnetic properties of biologically-produced magnetite nanocrystals
biomineralized by four different magnetotactic bacteria were compared to those
of synthetic magnetite nanocrystals and large, high quality single crystals.
The magnetic feature at the Verwey temperature, , was clearly seen in
all nanocrystals, although its sharpness depended on the shape of individual
nanoparticles and whether or not the particles were arranged in magnetosome
chains. The transition was broader in the individual superparamagnetic
nanoparticles for which , where is the superparamagnetic
blocking temperature. For the nanocrystals organized in chains, the effective
blocking temperature and the Verwey transition is sharply
defined. No correlation between the particle size and was found.
Furthermore, measurements of suggest that magnetosome chains
behave as long magnetic dipoles where the local magnetic field is directed
along the chain and this result confirms that time-logarithmic magnetic
relaxation is due to the collective (dipolar) nature of the barrier for
magnetic moment reorientation
Superconductivity and Physical Properties of CaPd2Ge2 Single Crystals
We present the superconducting and normal state properties of CaPd2Ge2 single
crystal investigated by magnetic susceptibility \chi, isothermal magnetization
M, heat capacity C_p, in-plane electrical resistivity \rho and London
penetration depth \lambda versus temperature T and magnetic field H
measurements. Bulk superconductivity is inferred from the \rho(T) and C_p(T)
data. The \rho(T) data exhibit metallic behavior and undergoes a
superconducting transition with T_c onset = 1.98 K and zero resistivity state
at T_c 0 = 1.67 K. The \chi(T) reveal the onset of superconductivity at 2.0 K.
For T>2.0 K, the \chi(T) and M(H) are weakly anisotropic paramagnetic with
\chi_ab > \chi_c. The C_p(T) confirm the bulk superconductivity below T_c =
1.69(3) K. The superconducting state electronic heat capacity is analyzed
within the framework of a single-band \alpha-model of BCS superconductivity and
various normal and superconducting state parameters are estimated. Within the
\alpha-model, the C_p(T) data and the ab plane \lambda(T) data consistently
indicate a moderately anisotropic s-wave gap with \Delta(0)/k_B T_c ~ 1.6,
somewhat smaller than the BCS value of 1.764. The relationship of the heat
capacity jump at T_c and the penetration depth measurement to the anisotropy in
the s-wave gap is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 2 Tables; Submitted to PR
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