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Attractive Vortex Interaction and the Intermediate-Mixed State of Superconductors

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Abstract

The magnetic vortices in superconductors usually repel each other. Several cases are discussed when the vortex interaction has an attractive tail, and thus a minimum, leading to vortex clusters and chains. Decoration pictures then typically look like in the intermediate state of type-I superconductors, showing lamellae or islands of Meissner state or surrounded by Meissner state, but with the normal regions filled with Abrikosov vortices that are typical for type-II superconductors in the mixed state. Such intermediate-mixed state was observed and investigated in detail in pure Nb, TaN and other materials 40 years ago; last year it was possibly also observed in MgB2, where it was called “a totally new state” and ascribed to the existence of two superconducting electron bands, one of type-I and one of type-II. The complicated electronic structure of MgB2 and its consequences for superconductivity and vortices are discussed. It is shown that for the real superconductor MgB2 which possesses a single transition temperature, the assumption of two independent order parameters with separate penetration depths and separate coherence lengths is unphysical.

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  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, 70506, Stuttgart, Germany

    Ernst Helmut Brandt

  2. Department of Theoretical Physics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Mukunda P. Das

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  1. Ernst Helmut Brandt
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Brandt, E.H., Das, M.P. Attractive Vortex Interaction and the Intermediate-Mixed State of Superconductors. J Supercond Nov Magn 24, 57–67 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-010-1046-8

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