No Arabic abstract
We argue that claims about magnetic field dependence of the magnetic field penetration depth lambda, which were made on the basis of moun-spin-rotation studies of some superconductors, originate from insufficient accuracy of theoretical models employed for the data analysis. We also reanalyze some of already published experimental data and demonstrate that numerical calculations of Brandt [E.H. Brandt, Phys. Rev. B 68, 54506 (2003)] may serve as a reliable and powerful tool for the analysis of the data collected in experiments with conventional superconductors. Furthermore, one can use this approach in order to distinguish between conventional and unconventional superconductors. It is unfortunate that these calculations have practically never been employed for such analyses.
We discuss the analysis of mixed-state magnetization data of type-II superconductors using a recently developed scaling procedure. It is based on the fact that, if the Ginzburg-Landau parameter kappa does not depend on temperature, the magnetic susceptibility is a universal function of H/H_c2(T), leading to a simple relation between magnetizations at different temperatures. Although this scaling procedure does not provide absolute values of the upper critical fieldH_c2(T), its temperature variation can be established rather accurately. This provides an opportunity to validate theoretical models that are usually employed for the evaluation of H_c2(T) from equilibrium magnetization data. In the second part of the paper we apply this scaling procedure for a discussion of the notorious first order phase transition in the mixed state of high temperature superconductors. Our analysis, based on experimental magnetization data available in the literature, shows that the shift of the magnetization accross the transition may adopt either sign, depending on the particular chosen sample. We argue that this observation is inconsistent with the interpretation that this transition always represents the melting transition of the vortex lattice.
We apply a recently developed scaling procedure to the analysis of equilibrium magnetization M(H) data that were obtained for T-2212 and Bi-2212single crystals and were reported in the literature. The temperature dependencies of the upper critical field and the magnetic field penetration depth resulting from our analysis are distinctly different from those obtained in the original publications. We argue that theoretical models, which are usually employed for analyses of the equilibrium magnetization in the mixed state of type-II superconductors are not adequate for a quantitative description of high-Tc superconductors. In addition, we demonstrate that the scaled equilibrium magnetization M(H) curve for a Tl-2212 sample reveals a pronounced kink, suggesting a phase transition in the mixed state.
We report on measurements of the in-plane magnetic penetration lambda_{ab} in the optimally doped cuprate superconductor (BiPb)_2(SrLa)_2CuO_6+delta (OP Bi2201) by means of muon-spin rotation (muSR). We show that in unconventional $d-$wave superconductors (like OP Bi2201), muSR experiments conducted in various magnetic fields allow to evaluate the zero-field magnetic penetration depth lambda_0, which relates to the zero-field superfluid density in terms of rho_sproptolambda_0^-2.
The vortex glass state formed by magnetic flux lines in a type-II superconductor is shown to possess non-trivial three-body correlations. While such correlations are usually difficult to measure in glassy systems, the magnetic fields associated with the flux vortices allow us to probe these via muon-spin rotation measurements of the local field distribution. We show via numerical simulations and analytic calculations that these observations provide detailed microscopic insight into the local order of the vortex glass and more generally validate a theoretical framework for correlations in glassy systems.
Measurements of the in-plane magnetic field penetration depth lambda_{ab} in Fe-based superconductors with the nominal composition SmFeAsO_0.85 (T_csimeq52K) and NdFeAsO_0.85 (T_csimeq51K) were carried out by means of muon-spin-rotation. The absolute values of lambda_{ab} at T=0 were found to be 189(5)nm and 195(5)nm for Sm and Nd substituted samples, respectively. The analysis of the magnetic penetration depth data within the Uemura classification scheme, which considers the correlation between the superconducting transition temperature T_c and the effective Fermi temperature T_F, reveal that both families of Fe-based superconductors (with and without fluorine) falls to the same class of unconventional superconductors.