Interação entre a Matéria de Vórtices e arranjos minimamente ordenados de defeitos de aspecto colunar em YBa2Cu3O7-δ

Abstract

In this work we have studied the interaction of Vortex Matter with columnar defects in YBa2Cu3O7-δ supercondutcting samples. In these samples prepared by a Solgel chemical route, the granularety is delicately controled so that the the average cross section of grains is reasonably constant and the penetration of magnetic flux lines is columnar-like. Using magnetic and transport measurements we have constructed the phase diagram of the studied sample, determinating the higher critical field, the irrevesibility line, and the line were the pinned vortices lose longitudinal coherence which we call H*(T). AC-susceptibility and 6-terminal transport measurements were used to determine H*(T). The results confirm that, above T* there is a break of longitudinal coherence and the vortices behave like "pancakes" according to Clem's model, whereas below T* the longitudinal coherence is maintained. The experimental line H*(T) was theoretically ajusted, confirming that it is a line of change from the three-dimensional coherence of the vortices, to an almost two-dimensional of the "pancakes". Due the existence of a variety of superconducting systems with columnar-like defects that also present the line H*(T), as for example Mg-deficient MgB2, it is useful to compare them with the hope that some type of universal behavior can be observed. The normalized magnetic phase diagram with data of YBa2Cu3O7-δ and MgB2 revealed the expected similarity between the two systems studied, due to microstructural similarities between both and not to any intrinsic characteristic of the superconducting materials, that are very different among themselves.