Magnetostriction of a Superconductor: -Results from the Critical-State Model
Abstract
In many cases, the critical-state theory can be treated as a suffi ciently accurate approximation for the modelling of the magnetic properties of superconductors. In the present work, the magnetostrictive hysteresis is computed for a quite general case of the modified Kim-Anderson model. The results obtained reproduce many features of the giant magnetostriction (butterfly-shaped curves) reported in the literature for measurements made on single-crystal samples of the high-temperature superconductor
B
i
2
S
r
2
CaC
u
2
O
8
. It is shown that addition of a contribution to the magnetostriction in the superconducting state which is of similar origin as in the normal state, offers a broader phenomenological interpretation of the complex magnetostriction hysteresis found in such heavy-fermion compounds as
UP
t
3
,
UR
u
2
S
i
2
or
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13
.