Pinning in a Porous Bi2223

The current-voltage characteristics of a porous superconductor Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox (Bi2223) have been measured at temperature range from 10 to 90 K. The experimental dependences have been analyzed within the model allowing for pinning by clusters of a normal phase with fractal boundaries, as well as the model taking into account phase transformations of vortex matter. It has been found that the electrical resistance of the superconductor material significantly increases at temperatures of 60-70 K over the entire range of magnetic fields under consideration without changing in the sign of the curvature of the R(I) dependence. The melting of the vortex structure occurs at these temperatures. It has been assumed that this behavior is associated with the specific feature of the pinning in a highly porous high-temperature superconductor, which lies in the fractal distribution of pinning centers in a wide range of self-similarity scales.

Magnetization asymmetry of type-II superconductors in high magnetic fields

Inhomogeneous distribution of the pinning force in superconductor results in a magnetization asymmetry. A model considering the field distribution in superconductor was developed and symmetric and asymmetric magnetization loops of porous and textured Bi_{1.8}Pb_{0.3}Sr_{1.9}Ca_{2}Cu_{3}O_{x} were fitted. It is found that the thermal equilibrium magnetization realizes in crystals smaller than some size depending on temperature and magnetic field.

Asymmetry of magnetization curves of textured BSCCO

The dependence of magnetization on magnetic field M(H) was measured for textured BSCCO samples for H || c, H || ab at different temperatures. Inclusion of the pinning parameter in the Valkov-Khrustalev model [V.V. Valkov, B.P. Khrustalev, JETP 80 (1995) 680] allowed to describe successfully the asymmetric M(H) dependencies. The temperature and magnetic field dependencies of critical current and pinning parameter for H || c and H || ab were estimated.

Pinning Enhancement by Heterovalent Substitution in Y$_{1-x}$RE$_{x}$Ba$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-delta}$

The intragrain pinning in high-$T_c$ superconductor compounds Y$_{1-x}$RE$_{x}$Ba$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-delta}$ with low concentration of RE (La, Ce, Pr) was investigated. Magnetic and transport measurements reveal that the pinning is maximal for the concentration of heterovalent RE such that the average distance between the impurity ions in the plane of rare-earth elements close to the diameter of Abrikosov vortices in YBCO.