Transient response of superconducting microbridges to supercritical currents
Time-resolved measurements have been made of the voltage waveforms on one-dimensional superconducting strips caused by current pulses in excess of their critical currents. The first known observations of the kinetic inductance spike, the non-zero minimum voltage, and the time-domain development of phase slip centers are reported. These measurements were made on indium microbridges and represent an important extension of the work of Pals and Wolter (1979) to a higher critical temperature material. Also the delay time between the application of the current pulse and the development of the first phase slip center in these bridges have been measured and have been used in conjunction with the STT theory (Schmid, Schoen and Tinkham 1980) to estimate a tau/sub E/ of 140 picoseconds for indium. In addition, a few measurements have been made on dirty aluminum strips which also show the time-domain development of phase slip centers. The data have been compared with the nonequilibrium superconductivity theory of SST wherever possible. To do this, a computer program that numerically solves the SST equations exactly in the one-dimensional, uniform strip approximation has been developed. From these numerical solutions it has been found that, for the most part, the theory is in good agreement with the data. This exact solution has been used to test the validity of several simpler approximations. These experiments have been carried out using conventional electronics in the laboratory at Harvard and using a superconducting sampler circuit and pulse generator in a collaboration with IBM.
- Research Organization:
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5057347
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
INDIUM
CRITICAL CURRENT
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PULSES
TIME RESOLUTION
CURRENTS
DATA
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELEMENTS
INFORMATION
JUNCTIONS
METALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RESOLUTION
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TIMING PROPERTIES
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
360104* - Metals & Alloys- Physical Properties
656102 - Solid State Physics- Superconductivity- Acoustic
Electronic
Magnetic
Optical
& Thermal Phenomena- (-1987)