Magnetic flux structures in superconductors. Extended reprint of a classic text. (Q5926535)

This book on the magnetic fluxes in superconductors is the second edition caused by an explosive growth of research and development in the field of superconductivity after discovery of high temperature superconductors in 1986. Moreover, a new representation of the issues included in the first edition (1979) is added by an extensive chapter devoted to high-temperature superconductivity. The book is divided into 15 chapters. A brief history of research of the structures of magnetic fluxes in superconductors is presented in the first chapter. Chapter 2 introduces the main characteristics, effects and equations connected with the description of magnetic properties of type-I superconductors. In particular, considerable attention is devoted to the Landau theory of the domain structure in the intermediate state, and its next development. The main definitions and equations of the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory and its development by Gor'kov and Abrikosov are presented in the next chapter. Their applications are accompanied by a lot of samples, in particular, a discussion of the superconductivity nucleation in bulk and at surfaces of specimen. Based on Abrikosov's discovery of the vortex state in type-II superconductors qualitative models for the description of the behavior of vortex lines in these materials are developed in Chapter 4. In this chapter the phenomenological models of London and Clem describe the behavior of the isolated vortex line and interaction between vortex lines. Then, the issues of the triangular vortex lattice, which characterizes the mixed state, and departure from it due to the actual crystal lattice and defects are considered. Finally, in this chapter the author addresses the vortex nucleation at the surface of type-II superconductors. The discussion of Abrikosov vortex state in thin films in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field is presented in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 reviews the experimental techniques utilized for investigating flux structures in superconductors. The motion of the magnetic flux structure induced by the Lorentz force of an electric current is investigated in the following chapter. The issues of the flux flow resistance and flux penetration into a superconductor are considered together with the corresponding effects, also as a problem of instability in the flux-flow behavior. Chapter 8 discusses various experiments for investigating the dynamics of magnetic flux structures in superconductors. The thermal force of a temperature gradient across the superconductor, acting as a driving force on the magnetic flux structure is considered in Chapter 9. Nerst and Seebeck effects, and also the transport entropy are investigated for superconductors of type-I and type-II. A review of the time-dependent theories for treating the flux flow are presented in Chapter 10. Among them the main attention is devoted to the Bardeen-Stephen model and the Ginzburg-Landau theory. The pinning force for flux flow which determines the critical current and the critical temperature gradient is introduced in Chapter 11. The critical state and fundamental interactions due to the pinning force are studied here. Chapter 12 is devoted to research of an additional relaxation mechanism to the flux pinning, namely thermally activated flux creep which is possible at finite temperatures. The methods and results of investigating the electrical noise powder spectrum which characterizes a microscopic information on the voltage-generating mechanism are presented in Chapter 13. In Chapter 14 the author discusses the electric and magnetic phenomena in superconductors caused directly by a transport current and by the magnetic field associated with this current in the absence of an external magnetic field. All complex magnetic properties connected with the three main features of high-temperature superconductors, namely high critical temperature, very small superconducting coherence length and strong anisotropy, are discussed in the last chapter. In total, the book successfully combines the clear physics with sufficiently rigorous mathematics and presents a modern view on the flux flow and recent progress in superconductivity. This text is highly recommended to researchers and graduate students, and may also serve as supplementary material for a graduate course on superconductivity.