Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T07:25:19.245Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Picosecond Studies of Nonequilibrium Flux Dynamics in Superconductors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

M. R. Freeman
M. R. Freeman*
Affiliation:
IBM Research Division, T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
Get access

Abstract

A fast time-domain magneto-optical technique is used to explore magnetic flux dynamics in the optically driven nonequilibrium state of Type I superconducting Pb films. It is found that the effective penetration of flux through the nonequilibrium intermediate state can be dramatically faster than through the normal metal. The system is probed through the application of rapid transient magnetic field pulses. Above the superconducting transition temperature, a direct measure of the diffusion coefficient of the magnetic field in the normal metal is obtained, on a time scale where the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of scattering sites is relevant. In the nonequilibrium superconductor the observations are dominated by coupling of the field transients to local motion of magnetic flux threading the normal domains. Studies as a function of how far the system is driven from equilibrium, and of the effect of a static applied magnetic field, indicate that the observations reflect the dynamics of normal/superconducting interfaces, and are strongly dependent on the microscopic arrangement of the intermediate state. By contrasting the response of pure Pb films to that of Pb1−xInx alloys, a comparison to Type II superconductivity is made.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 290: Symposium N – Dynamics in Small Confining Systems , 1992 , 323
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Huebener, R.P., “Magnetic Flux Structures in Superconductors”, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1979 Google Scholar
2. Landau, L.D., Phys. Z. Sov. 11, 129 (1937)Google Scholar
3. Dolan, G.J., J. Low Temp. Phys. 15, 133 (1974)Google Scholar
4. Callaway, D.J.E., Nuc. Phys. B344, 627 (1990); Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 213, 166 (1991)Google Scholar
5. Testardi, L.R., Phys. Rev. B 4, 2189 (1971)Google Scholar
6. Gray, K.E., ed., “Nonequilibrium Superconductivity, Phonons, and Kapitza Boundaries”, Plenum, New York, 1981 Google Scholar
7. Chi, C.C., Loy, M.M.T., and Cronemeyer, D.C., Phys. Rev. B 23, 124 (1981); and C.C. Chi, private communicationGoogle Scholar
8. Johnson, Mark, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 374 (1991)Google Scholar
9. Freeman, M.R., Ruf, R.R., and Gambino, R.J., IEEE Trans. Mag. 27, 4840 (1991)Google Scholar
10. Freeman, M.R., Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 1961 (1992)Google Scholar
11. Frahm, H., Ullah, S., and Dorsey, A.T., Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 3067 (1991); F. Liu, M. Mondello, and N. Goldenfeld, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, p. 3071Google Scholar
12. Freeman, M.R., Brady, M.J., and Smyth, J., Appl. Phys. Lett. 60, 2555 (1992)Google Scholar
13. Maloney, M.D., de la Cruz, F., and Cardona, M., Phys. Rev. B 5, 3558 (1972)Google Scholar
14. Landau, L.D. et al., “Electrodynamics of Continuous Media”, 2nd ed., Pergamon, Oxford, 1984, p. 201 Google Scholar
15. Hammond, P., IEE Monograph 514S, 508 (1962)Google Scholar
16. Kaplan, S.B. etal., Phys. Rev. B 14, 4854 (1976)Google Scholar
17. Sai-Halasz, G.A., Chi, C.C., Denenstein, A., and Langenberg, D.N., Phys. Rev. Lett. 33, 215 (1974)Google Scholar
18. Elesin, V.F. and Kopaev, Yu. V., Soy. Phys. Usp. 24, 116 (1981)Google Scholar
19. See Ref. 1, p. 129 Google Scholar
20. Because of pinning, the flux density in the probe region does not decay into equilibrium with the rest of the film during the long interval between pump pulses. In practice the field pulse amplitude is chopped at a frequency approximately half that of the laser pulse repetition, such that on average every- pulse sequence toggles the system into a final state of different flux density than existed before that sequence.Google Scholar
21. Pippard, A.B., Phil. Mag. 41, 243 (1950)Google Scholar
22. Corruccini, R.J. and Oniewek, J.J., N.B.S. Monograph 21, (1960)Google Scholar
23. Hu, X.-H., Juhasz, T., and Bron, W.E., Appl. Phys. A 52, 155 (1991)Google Scholar
24. Sharvin, Yu. V., Soy. Phys. JETP 6, 1031 (1958)Google Scholar
25. Livingston, J.D., Phys. Rev. 129, 1943 (1963)Google Scholar