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The surface energies of superconductors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

A. B. Pippard
A. B. Pippard
Affiliation:
The Royal Society Mond LaboratoryCambridge
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Abstract

Measurements of the areas of magnetization curves of superconducting colloids and films indicate that the difference between the surface energies of the normal and super-conducting states at the same temperature is much smaller than has been suggested hitherto. An attempt is made to explain the high critical fields of thin films, which led to the introduction of the surface energy, by the hypothesis that a negative interphase surface energy in films favours the persistence of superconducting threads in fields higher than those normally regarded as sufficient to destroy superconductivity. A model is proposed of the interface between normal and superconducting phases which allows the interphase surface energy to be positive in pure macroscopic specimens but negative in alloys and thin films and at lattice defects. This enables a qualitative explanation to be given of some of the details, such as supercooling, of the phase transition in pure metals and alloys.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , July 1951 , pp. 617 - 625
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1951

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References

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