The interaction of vortices with twin boundaries

Conference · Mon May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995

OSTI ID:67479

Crabtree, G W; Kwok, W K; Welp, U; Fendrich, J; van der Beek, C J; Vlasko-Vlasov, V K; Nikitenko, V I; Gunter, D; Gardiner, T

Twin boundaries provide a convenient defect for investigating vortex dynamics in superconductors. They occur naturally in YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7}, with well defined planar geometries. They are a strong pinning defect, and at the temperature of the melting transition they are the dominant pinning sites in clean crystals. Twin boundaries are easily seen in polarized light, making their location and number directly observable without special equipment. Finally, they present a highly anisotropic pinning potential to the vortices, creating the possibility of interesting new behavior. In this paper, we describe experiments using twin boundaries to probe two effects in vortex dynamics: a new peak effect in the critical current occurring in the solid state just below the melting transition, and anisotropic pinning by planar defects.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 67479
• Report Number(s): ANL/MSD/CP--85925; CONF-950292--1; ON: DE95012079; CNN: DMR91-20000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
66 PHYSICS
BARIUM COMPOUNDS
COPPER OXIDES
DEFECTS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
HIGH-TC SUPERCONDUCTORS
MAGNETIC FLUX
MELTING
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
VORTICES
YTTRIUM COMPOUNDS