Temperature pulse induced thermal instability in Y1Ba2Cu3O7-δ superconductors

As a common effect of a large and variable temperature gradient and a temperature pulse, a thermal instability of a new type has been observed in high-T-c, superconductors. The primary effect is the temporal change of local energy density, that causes a dynamic state of simultaneously coexisting normal and superconducting domains, establishing a spatial and temporal variation of superconducting and normal states. The fluctuation of the ratio of the superconducting and normal volume fractions can be detected by the oscillation of DC and AC voltages measured on the samples. Supposing that every jump of the AC voltage represents the transformation of a single coherent domain, it leads to the average value of the linear dimension of domains as 2.1 mm, characteristic time of the transformation as 7.5 s and velocity of the propagation of this effect as 0.3 mm/s in the case of Y1Ba2Cu3O7-delta specimens. The macroscopic consequence of the thermal disturbance introduced into the sample is the appearance of a giant flux creep, Its existence is confirmed by comparison of our measurements to others, by analytical and numerical calculations of the forces acting on the vortices and by evaluation of the effect of the huge fluctuation created in the samples by our experiments. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.