In the past few years magneto-optical flux imaging (MOI) has come to take an increasing role in the investigation and understanding of critical current densities in high-T c superconductors (HTS). This has been related to the significant progress in quantitative high-resolution magnetooptical imaging of flux distributions together with the model-independent determination of the corresponding current distributions. We review in this article the magneto-optical imaging technique and experiments on thin films, single crystals, polycrystalline bulk ceramics, tapes and melt-textured HTS materials and analyse systematically the properties determining the spatial distribution and the magnitude of the supercurrents. First of all, the current distribution is determined by the sample geometry. Due to the boundary conditions at the sample borders, the current distribution in samples of arbitrary shape splits up into domains of nearly uniform parallel current flow which are separated by current domain boundaries, where the current streamlines are sharply bent. Qualitatively, the current pattern is described by the Bean model; however, changes due to a spatially dependent electric field distribution which is induced by flux creep or flux flow have to be taken into account. For small magnetic fields, the Meissner phase coexists with pinned vortex phases and the geometry-dependent Meissner screening currents contribute to the observed current patterns. The influence of additional factors on the current domain patterns are systematically analysed: local magnetic field dependence of j c (B), current anisotropy, inhomogeneities and local transport properties of grain boundaries. We then continue to an overview of the current distribution and current-limiting factors of materials, relevant to technical applications like melt-textured samples, coated conductors and tapes. Finally, a selection of magneto-optical experiments which give direct insight into vortex pinning and depinning mechanisms are reviewed.
Increasing requirements of sensitivity and of spectral dispersion have driven the development of NMR magnets to higher and more homogeneous magnetic fields, which are obtained by immobile and expensive superconducting magnets. With the best field homogeneities available ( B/B ∼ 10 −9 over 1 cm 3 , where B is the magnetic field), ultrahigh-resolution carbon ( 13 C) NMR spectra at 4.2 T with an instrumental broadening below 50 mHz have been realized 2 . For 1 H high-field NMR spectroscopy (1-20 T), it is difficult to measure linewidths with an instrumental broadening below 100 mHz.We define our ideal NMR spectrometer by two requirements: first, it should measure NMR spectra with high resolution and all relevant NMR parameters, such as the longitudinal (T 1 ) and transverse (T 2 ) relaxation times, the chemical shift and the dipolar and J-coupling, in a single scan; and second, the spectrometer should be robust, low cost and mobile. Low cost and mobile means that heavy electro or superconducting magnets as well as superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) should be avoided. Single-scan and high-resolution NMR implies
Conventional high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra are usually measured in homogeneous, high magnetic fields (>1 T), which are produced by expensive and immobile superconducting magnets. We show that chemically resolved xenon (Xe) NMR spectroscopy of liquid samples can be measured in the Earth's magnetic field (5 x 10(-5) T) with a continuous flow of hyperpolarized Xe gas. It was found that the measured normalized Xe frequency shifts are significantly modified by the Xe polarization density, which causes different dipolar magnetic fields in the liquid and in the gas phases.
Superconductors with anisotropic critical-current density j c exhibit characteristic anisotropic flux-density patterns during penetration of magnetic flux. We investigate this anisotropic flux penetration in detail by observations using the magneto-optical Faraday effect and by first-principles calculations which describe the superconductor as a nonlinear anisotropic conductor. Our samples are thin plates of DyBa 2 Cu 3 O 7Ϫ␦ into which anisotropic pinning is introduced by oblique irradiation with 340-MeV Xe ions creating linear defects. Excellent agreement between experiment and theory is obtained. In particular, we find that in rectangular plates with j c anisotropy equal to the side ratio, the intrinsic and shape anisotropies may compensate such that the flux pattern looks like that in an isotropic square stretched to the rectangular shape. This means the current streamlines are concentric rectangles which shrink to a point rather than to a line, and the discontinuity lines where the current bends sharply, coincide with the diagonals of the rectangle rather than forming the usual double-Y structure.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.