We report on the microwave (mw) properties of coaxial cavities built by using bulk MgB2 superconductor prepared by reactive liquid Mg infiltration technology. We have assembled a homogeneous cavity, by using an outer MgB2 cylinder and an inner MgB2 r
od, and a hybrid cavity by using an outer copper cylinder and the same MgB2 rod as inner conductor. By the analysis of the resonance curves, in the different resonant modes, we have determined the microwave surface resistance, Rs, of the MgB2 materials as a function of the temperature and the frequency, in the absence of DC magnetic fields. At T = 4.2 K and f = 2.5 GHz, by a mw pulsed technique, we have determined the quality factor of the homogeneous cavity as a function of the input power up to a maximum level of about 40 dBm (corresponding to a maximum peak magnetic field of about 100 Oe). Contrary to what occurs in many films, Rs of the MgB2 material used does not exhibit visible variations up to an input power level of about 10 dBm and varies less than a factor of 2 on further increasing the input power of 30 dB.
We report on the microwave surface resistance of melt-textured Y_1.6Ba_2.3Cu_3.3O_7-x samples, doped with different amount of B_2O_3 and, subsequently, irradiated by thermal neutrons at the fluence of 1.476 times 10^17 cm^-2. The microwave surface re
sistance has been measured as a function of temperature and DC magnetic field. The experimental results are quantitatively discussed in the framework of the Coffey and Clem theory, properly adapted to take into account the d-wave nature of cuprate superconductors. By fitting the experimental data at zero DC field, we have highlighted the effects of the induced defects in the general properties of the samples, including the intergranular region. The analysis of the results obtained at high DC fields allowed us to investigate the fluxon dynamics and deduce the depinning frequency; in particular, we have shown that the addition of B_2O_3 up to 0.1 wt% increases the effectiveness of the defects to hinder the fluxon motion induced by the microwave current.
We discuss experimental results obtained using a tunable cylindrical coaxial cavity constituted by an outer Cu cylinder and an inner Pb-BSCCO wire. We have used this device for investigating the microwave response of the superconducting wire, both in
the linear and nonlinear regimes. In particular, by tuning the different modes of the cavity to make them resonant at exactly harmonic frequencies, we have detected the power emitted by the superconducting inner wire at the second- and third-harmonic frequency of the driving field. The results obtained in the nonlinear regime, whether for the microwave surface impedance or the harmonic emission, are qualitatively accounted for considering intergrain fluxon dynamics. The use of this kind of device can be of strong interest to investigate and characterise wires of large dimensions to be used for implementing superconducting-based microwave devices.
The AC susceptibility at zero DC magnetic field of a polycrystalline sample of LaFeAsO_{0.94}F_{0.06} (T_c = 24 K) has been investigated as a function of the temperature, the amplitude of the AC magnetic field (in the range Hac = 0.003 - 4 Oe) and th
e frequency (in the range f = 10 kHz - 100 kHz). The temperature dependence of the AC susceptibility exhibits the typical two-step transition arising from the combined response of superconduncting grains and intergranular weak-coupled medium. The intergranular part of the susceptibility strongly depends on both the amplitude and the frequency of the AC driving field, from few Kelvin below T_c down to T = 4.2 K. Our results show that, in the investigated sample, the intergrain critical current is not determined by pinning of Josephson vortices but by Josephson critical current across neighboring grains.
The magnetic-field-induced variations of the microwave surface resistance, R_s, have been investigated in ceramic Mg_{1-x}(LiAl)_xB_2, with x in the range 0.1 - 0.4. The measurements have been performed on increasing and decreasing the DC magnetic fi
eld, H_0, at fixed temperatures. At low temperatures, we have observed a magnetic hysteresis in the R_s(H_0) curves in all the investigated samples. On increasing the temperature, the range of H_0 in which the hysteretic behavior is visible shrinks; however, in the sample with x = 0.1 it is present up to temperatures close to T_c. We show that the field dependence of R_s can be quantitatively justified taking into account the critical-state effects on the fluxon lattice only in the sample with x = 0.4. On the contrary, in the samples with x < 0.4 the hysteresis exhibits an unusual shape, similar to that observed in others two-gap MgB_2 samples, which cannot be justified in the framework of the critical-state models.
We report on the magnetic-field-induced variations of the microwave surface resistance, R_s, in a polycrystalline MgB_2 sample, at different values of temperature. We have detected a magnetic hysteresis in R_s, which exhibits an unexpected plateau on
decreasing the DC magnetic field below a certain value. In particular, at temperatures near T_c the hysteresis manifests itself only through the presence of the plateau. Although we do not quantitatively justify the anomalous shape of the magnetic hysteresis, we show that the results obtained in the reversible region of the R_s(H) curve can be quite well accounted for by supposing that, in this range of magnetic field, the pi-gap is almost suppressed by the applied field and, consequently, all the pi-band charge carriers are quasiparticles. On this hypothesis, we have calculated R_s(H) supposing that fluxons assume a conventional (single core) structure and the flux dynamics can be described in the framework of conventional models. From the fitting of the experimental results, we determine the values of H_{c2}^pi(T) at temperatures near T_c. In our opinion, the most important result of our investigation is that, at least at temperatures near T_c, the value of the applied field that separates the reversible and irreversible regions of the R_s(H) curves is just H_{c2}^pi(T); a qualitative discussion of the possible reason of this finding is given.
The magnetic-field-induced variations of the microwave surface resistance have been investigated in a heavily neutron-irradiated MgB2 sample, in which the irradiation has caused the merging of the two gaps into a single value. The experimental result
s have been analyzed in the framework of the Coffey and Clem model. By fitting the experimental data, we have determined the field dependence of the depinning frequency, omega_0, at different values of the temperature. Although the pinning is not particularly effective, the value of omega_0 obtained at low temperatures is considerably higher than that observed in conventional low-temperature superconductors.
The frequency difference between a model used only two-point interpolation of opacity and a model used piecewise linear interpolation of opacity is of the order of several microHertz at a certain stage, which is almost 10 times worse than the observa
tional precision of p-modes of solar-like stars. Therefore, the two-point interpolation of opacity is unsuitable in modelling of solar-like stars with element diffusion.
We report on the microwave surface resistance of two polycrystalline Mg11B2 samples; one consists of pristine material, the other has been irradiated at very high neutron fluence. It has already been reported that in the strongly irradiated sample th
e two gaps merge into a single value. The mw surface resistance has been measured in the linear regime as a function of the temperature and the DC magnetic field, at increasing and decreasing fields. The results obtained in the strongly irradiated sample are quite well justified in the framework of a generalized Coffey and Clem model, in which we take into account the field distribution inside the sample due to the critical state. The results obtained in the pristine sample show several anomalies, especially at low temperatures, which cannot be justified in the framework of standard models for the fluxon dynamics. Only at temperatures near Tc and for magnetic fields greater than 0.5Hc2(T) the experimental data can quantitatively be accounted for by the Coffey and Clem model, provided that the upper-critical-field anisotropy is taken into due account.
We report on the microwave properties of a resonant cylindrical cavity made of bulk MgB2 superconductor, produced by the reactive liquid Mg infiltration process. The frequency response of the cavity has been measured in the range 5-13GHz. Among the v
arious modes, the TE011, resonating at 9.79GHz, exhibits the highest quality factor. For this mode, we have determined the temperature dependence of the quality factor, obtaining values of the order of 10^5 in the temperature range 4.2-30K. The values of the surface resistance deduced from the measurements of the quality factor agree quite well with those independently measured in a small sample of MgB2 extracted from the same specimen from which the cavity has been obtained.
