Relation between jumps in magnetic flux and plastic deformation of superconducting niobium

Abstract

Superconducting niobium is found to exhibit two types of thermomagnetic instabilities which differ in the nature of the initiating effect. These instabilities are: (a) magnetic flux jumps during magnetization in an alternating magnetic field and (b) bursts of trapped flux during quasi-elastic deformation. It is found that the plastic deformation jumps are initiated by the magnetic flux jumps. The effect is shown to be due to sample heating during the flux jump and can be interpreted by the theory of thermomechanical instability of low-temperature plastic flow. The effect of S–N transitions on the initiation of deformation jumps is considered.

Topics

Identifiers

DOI

10.1063/10.0032010

Citations and references