APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. B » Volume 72 » Issue 21
< Previous article | Next article >

Phys. Rev. B 72, 212508 (2005) [4 pages]

Topological hysteresis in the intermediate state of type-I superconductors

Download: PDF (822 kB) or Buy this Article (Use Article Pack) Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Ruslan Prozorov
Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

Russell W. Giannetta
Loomis Laboratory of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

Anatolii A. Polyanskii
Applied Superconductivity Center, University of Wisconsin, 1500 Engineering Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

Garry K. Perkins
Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom

Received 17 September 2004; revised 18 August 2005; published 15 December 2005

Magneto-optical imaging of thick stress-free lead samples reveals two distinct topologies of the intermediate state. Flux tubes are formed upon magnetic-field penetration (closed topology), and laminar patterns appear upon flux exit (open topology). Two-dimensional distributions of shielding currents were obtained by applying an efficient inversion scheme. Quantitative analysis of the magnetic induction distribution and correlation with magnetization measurements indicate that observed topological differences between the two phases are responsible for experimentally observable magnetic hysteresis.


©2005 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.72.212508
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.72.212508
PACS: 74.25.Ha, 74.25.Op, 89.75.Kd

[ Abstract  |  Previous article  |  Next article  |  Issue 21 ]