Vibrational motion of a vortex lattice induced near the surface of a type-II superconductor by an external low-frequency ac magnetic field

Abstract

The theoretical description and experimental study of a reversible vibrational vortex motion induced in a type-II superconductor by a weak low-frequency ac magnetic field are discussed. The case where the external magnetic field and vortex lines are parallel to the surface of the superconductor is considered. The equilibrium positions of vortices near a surface, the amplitude of their vibrations, and the contribution of this process to the dynamic permeability μv are calculated. In these calculations, the interactions of vortices with each other, with the surface, and with pinning centers are considered within the discrete vortex lattice model. The calculations in the London approximation are compared with the results obtained within a more accurate model, including the spatial variation of the order parameter in the vortex core by means of a variational function. It is shown that the structural parameters of the vortex lattice near the surface depend on the accuracy of the description of the intervortex interactions, but the contribution μv appears to be model independent. It is important that this conclusion is valid in the case of the exponential approximation for the interaction between vortex rows. In this approximation, the problem under consideration is analytically examined, and formulas describing the dependences of the parameters of the vortex lattice and the contribution μv on the external dc magnetic field and the characteristics of a superconductor are derived. The theoretical results are compared with experimental data for a YBa2Cu3Oy high-Tc superconducting single-crystal plate. The magnetic field is parallel to the plate, i.e., to the crystallographic ab plane. A strong anisotropy of the properties and shape of the crystal is considered when analyzing the experimental data. A procedure for the determination of the experimental dependence μv(H) is described. It is shown that the reversible vibrations of vortices occur near the planes of the single-crystal plate in the direction of the crystallographic c axis, whereas vortices enter its lateral ends and leave them (along the structural layers) even at a small magnetic field amplitude of about 1 Oe. It is found that the developed theoretical description reproduces the experimental data μv(H) in the entire studied range of temperatures and magnetic fields under the assumptions that pinning is isotropic and the length of interaction of vortices with pinning centers is close to the coherence length.

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