A new method is described for measuring the critical current density and transition temperature of a superconducting film without making contact to it or modifying it in any way. This technique is particularly well suited for use with high transition temperature oxide films which are notoriously irreproducible and sensitive to patterning. It consists of positioning a flat, multiturn coil near the film surface and driving the coil with an audio frequency sine-wave current. Induced shielding currents flow in the film. We have calculated the radial dependence of the induced currents and show that the induced current density is zero at the coil center, rises to a maximum near the mean radius of the drive coil, and then falls off rapidly as the radius continues to increase. A measurement of the critical current per length can be obtained by monitoring the development of odd harmonic voltage components across the coil as the drive current is increased. We find that this measure of nonlinearity in the coil–film system increases abruptly when the maximum induced current equals the critical current. The critical current obtained by this inductive measurement has been demonstrated to give nearly the same value as that obtained by a transport measurement. Other advantages to this inductive measurement approach include: sensitivity only to intergranular critical current, and an ability to accommodate large substrates. Finally, with only minor modification to the electronics used to measure Jc, the superconducting transition temperature of the sample may be measured as well.

No abstract

A finite stack of thin superconducting tapes, all carrying a fixed current I, can be approximated by an anisotropic superconducting bar with critical current density J c = I c /2aD, where I c is the critical current of each tape, 2a is the tape width, and D is the tape-to-tape periodicity. The current density J must obey the constraint Jdx = I/D, where the tapes lie parallel to the x axis and are stacked along the z axis. We suppose that J c is independent of field (Bean approximation) and look for a solution to the critical state for arbitrary height 2b of the stack. For c < |x| < a we have J = J c , and for |x| < c the critical state requires that B z = 0. We show that this implies ∂J/∂x = 0 in the central region. Setting c as a constant (independent of z) results in field profiles remarkably close to the desired one (B z = 0 for |x| < c) as long as the aspect ratio b/a is not too small. We evaluate various criteria for choosing c, and we show that the calculated hysteretic losses depend only weakly on how c is chosen. We argue that for small D/a the anisotropic homogeneous-medium approximation gives a reasonably accurate estimate of the ac losses in a finite Z stack. The results for a Z stack can be used to calculate the transport losses in a pancake coil wound with superconducting tape.

Using a novel growth technique called reactive bias target ion beam deposition, the authors have prepared highly oriented VO2 thin films on Al2O3 (0001) substrates at various growth temperatures ranging from 250to550°C. The influence of the growth parameters on the microstructure and transport properties of VO2 thin films was systematically investigated. A change in electrical conductivity of 103 was measured at 341K associated with the well known metal-insulator transition (MIT). It was observed that the MIT temperature can be tuned to higher temperatures by mixing VO2 and other vanadium oxide phases. In addition, a current/electric-field induced MIT was observed at room temperature with a drop in electrical conductivity by a factor of 8. The current densities required to induce the MIT in VO2 are about 3×104A∕cm2. The switching time of the MIT, as measured by voltage pulsed measurements, was determined to be no more than 10ns.

The magnetic, structural, and transport properties of the Heusler alloy Co2MnSi are reported for sputtered thin films and a single crystal. X-ray diffraction reveals a phase pure L21 structure for all films grown between 573 and 773 K. Films grown at 773 K display a four-fold decrease in the resistivity relative to those grown at lower temperatures and a corresponding 30% increase in the residual resistivity ratio (ρ300 K/ρ5 K). We show that the higher growth temperature results in lattice constants, room temperature resistivities, and magnetic properties that are comparable to that of the bulk single crystal.

We have studied the transport properties of disordered WSi films near the metal/insulator transition (MIT) and we have also reviewed the data for several other disordered materials near their MIT. In all cases, we found the presence of enhanced superconductivity. We constructed a superconductivity "phase diagram" (i.e., T(c) versus sigma) for each system, which reveals a striking correlation: In all cases, T(c) values are significantly enhanced only for samples whose conductivities lie within a narrow range on the metallic side of, and moderately near, the MIT. We present a heuristic model to explain this phenomenon.

Ni–W alloys are used as the substrate in the manufacture of HTS tape via the RABiTSTM process. Theoretical work has shown that the ferromagnetism in a substrate can affect the ac losses in the superconductor. This occurs in part because of the increased magnetic permeability, which alters the magnetic induction in the superconductor and thereby the loss. Magnetic hysteretic loss in the substrate is an additional contribution to overall ac loss. We report measurements of both permeability and magnetic loss as a function of frequency and magnetic induction for the standard alloy Ni–5W as well as composite substrates incorporating non-magnetic Ni–W alloys. The measurements are done using ac susceptibility at 77 K, at frequencies up to 104 Hz and inductions in the range 1–150 mT. It is shown how to use these results to predict total ac loss in isolated superconducting tape and wound coils. Some important magnetic parameters cannot be obtained with sufficient accuracy using a SQUID or vibrating sample magnetometer, since the size of a sample is limited in these measurements. This makes the demagnetizing factor large enough to degrade the accuracy of a permeability measurement.

When a pair of coils is positioned on opposite sides of a superconducting thin film, measurement of their mutual inductance may in principle be used to infer the penetration depth λ in the superconductor. We have studied how to optimize this measurement with respect to coil design, and have found that the approach that has been generally used is far from the optimum. Useful simplifications to the expression relating mutual inductance to penetration depth are derived. An analysis of the sources of uncertainty in determining λ is presented. For an optimized coil set, the major source of uncertainty often is uncertainty of the thickness of the film. The sensitivity to changes in λ is also studied; it is shown that this can approach 1 pm for a typical high temperature superconductor sample. Finally, it is shown that the analysis may be extended to normal metal films, with the skin depth playing a role similar to that of the penetration depth in superconductors. Measurement of a high conductivity normal metal foil can be used to check calculated calibration factors for a coil set or to determine the skin depth.