Superconductivity

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 UB e 13 .

We report measurements of the microwave surface impedance of the borocarbide family of superconductors LnNi2B2C (Ln=Y, Er, Tm, Ho). The experiments enable direct measurements of the superfluid density, and are particularly sensitive to the influence of magnetic pairbreaking. In HoNi2B2C the antiferromagnetic transition is clearly observed at zero field, and leads to a drastic reduction of the superfluid density, which recovers at lower temperatures. In ErNi2B2C the antiferromagnetic transition is not seen in zero field data. Magnetic effects are responsible for anomalies in the low temperature surface impedance below approximately 4K in HoNi2B2C and TmNi2B2C. The temperature dependence of the microwave impedance disagrees with simple BCS calculations.

We present measurements of the microwave surface resistance Rs and the penetration depth lambda of YBCO:123 crystals. At low T obeys lambda(T) a polynomial behavior, while Rs displays a characteristic non-monotonic T-dependence. A detailed comparison of the experimental data is made to a model of d-wave superconductivity which includes both elastic and inelastic scattering. While the model reproduces the general features of the experimental data, three aspects of the parameters needed are worth noting. The elastic scattering rate required to fit the data is much smaller than measured from the normal state, the scattering phase shifts have to be close to pi/2 and a strong coupling value of the gap parameter 2\Delta(0)/kTc = 6 is needed. On the experimental side the uncertainties regarding the material parameters lambda(0) and Rs,res(0) further complicate a quantitative comparison. For one sample does Rs,res(0) agree with the intrinsic value which results from the d-wave model.

We have analyzed the Cu K-EXAFS of Bi_2Sr_1.5Ca_1.5Cu_2O_8+d using a full multiple scattering analysis in a cluster with diameter d = 7.6 AA. The numerous quasi one-dimensional structural elements give rise to significant multiple scattering contributions in the EXAFS. We confirm the Sr/Ca ratio of the sample is 1:1, and one Ca atom is located close to a nominal Sr-site. At 40 K the dimpling angle in the $\rm CuO_2-plane is found to be < 3.5 degrees.

Elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements have been carried out to investigate the magnetic properties of superconducting (Tc~8K) HoNi2B2C. The inelastic measurements reveal that the lowest two crystal field transitions out of the ground state occurat 11.28(3) and 16.00(2) meV, while the transition of 4.70(9) meV between these two levels is observed at elevated temperatures. The temperature dependence of the intensities of these transitions is consistent with both the ground state and these higher levels being magnetic doublets. The system becomes magnetically long range ordered below 8K, and since this ordering energy kTN ~ 0.69meV << 11.28meV the magnetic properties in the ordered phase are dominated by the ground-state spin dynamics only. The low temperature structure, which coexists with superconductivity, consists of ferromagnetic sheets of Ho{3+ moments in the a-b plane, with the sheets coupled antiferromagnetically along the c-axis. The magnetic state that initially forms on cooling, however, is dominated by an incommensurate spiral antiferromagnetic state along the c-axis, with wave vector qc ~0.054 A-1, in which these ferromagnetic sheets are canted from their low temperature antiparallel configuration by ~17 deg. The intensity for this spiral state reaches a maximum near the reentrant superconducting transition at ~5K; the spiral state then collapses at lower temperature in favor of the commensurate antiferromagnetic state. We have investigated the field dependence of the magnetic order at and above this reentrant superconducting transition. Initially the field rotates the powder particles to align the a-b plane along the field direction, demonstrating that the moments strongly prefer to lie within this plane due to the crystal field anisotropy. Upon subsequently increasing the field at

The superconductive phase transition in the Ginzburg-Landau theory (or Coulomb-Higgs phase transition of scalar QED in 3D) is discussed in a dual formulation which focuses on the magnetic rather than the electric excitations of the system. Renormalization group analysis of the dual formulation reveals the transition to be of second order and of a new universality class. Whereas coherence length and specific heat have XY-model exponents, the magnetic penetration depth shows mean-field behavior. Experimental evidence for these predictions is discussed.

The ac response of a slab of material with electrodynamic characteristics E∼ j κ+1 , κ≥0 , is studied numerically. From the solutions of the nonlinear diffusion equation, the fundamental and higher-order components of the harmonic susceptibility are obtained. A large portion of the data for every κ can be scaled by a single parameter, ξ = t 1/(κ+2) ⋅ H κ/(κ+2) 0 /D , where t is the period of the ac field at the surface, H 0 is its amplitude and D is the slab thickness. This is, however, only an approximate scaling property: The field penetration into a nonlinear medium is a more complex phenomenon than in the linear case. In particular, the susceptibility values are not uniquely defined by a set of only two parameters, such as κ and ξ , while one parameter, i.e. t 1/2 /D, is sufficient to describe the electrodynamic response of a linear medium.

The non-linear microwave surface impedance of patterned YBCO thin films, was measured using a suspended line resonator in the presence of a perpendicular DC magnetic field of magnitude comparable to that of the microwave field. Signature of the virgin state was found to be absent even for relatively low microwave power levels. The microwave loss was initially found to decrease for small applied DC field before increasing again. Also, non-linearities inherent in the sample were found to be substantially suppressed at low powers at these applied fields. These two features together can lead to significant improvement in device performance.

Exciton effects on conjugated polymers are investigated in soliton lattice states. We use the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with long-range Coulomb interactions. The Hartree-Fock (HF) approximation and the single-excitation configuration- interaction (single-CI) method are used to obtain optical absorption spectra. The third-harmonic generation (THG) at off-resonant frequencies is calculated as functions of the soliton concentration and the chain length of the polymer. The magnitude of the THG at the 10 percent doping increases by the factor about 10^2 from that of the neutral system. This is owing to the accumulation of the oscillator strengths at the lowest exciton with increasing the soliton concentration. The increase by the order two is common for several choices of Coulomb interaction strengths.

We investigate the kinetics of normal phase nucleation and flux line condensation in the type-II superconductors by numerical study of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation. We have shown that under the sufficient transport current the normal phase nucleates in the superconducting strips in a form of the macroscopic droplets having the multiple topological charge. We discuss the stability and the dynamics of the droplets. We found that pinning suppresses the droplet formation.