Current-density inhomogeneity throughout the thickness of superconducting films and its effect on their irreversible magnetic properties

R. Prozorov; E. B. Sonin; E. Sheriff; A. Shaulov; Y. Yeshurun

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.57.13845

← Back to search

Current-density inhomogeneity throughout the thickness of superconducting films and its effect on their irreversible magnetic properties

R. Prozorov, E. B. Sonin, E. Sheriff, A. Shaulov, Y. Yeshurun

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.57.13845 · Physical Review B

T1

Active bibliographic source — not scientific approval

Bibliographic access preserves source history; it does not approve extracted materials or validate reported claims. Review warnings on each occurrence separately.

Abstract

We calculate the distribution of the current density j in superconducting films along the direction of an external field applied perpendicular to the film plane. Our analysis reveals that in the presence of bulk pinning j is inhomogeneous on a length scale of the order of the intervortex distance. This inhomogeneity is significantly enhanced in the presence of surface pinning. We introduce a critical state model, which takes into account the current-density variations throughout the film thickness, and show how these variations give rise to the experimentally observed thickness dependence of j and magnetic relaxation rate.