Abstract
The vortex state of a type-II superconductor produces a distinctive SR line shape with features determined by the average internal field , the magnetic penetration depth λ, the superconducting coherence length ξ, and the degree of disorder in the vortex lattice. Only in the high field regime (λ≫L>ξ, where L is the intervortex spacing) do the vortex cores (of radius ≊ξ) occupy a large enough area that they are observable in the line shape as a high field cutoff. Our SR measurements of the field distributions in a mosaic of single crystals of in fields of 1.9, 4.1, 4.7, and 6.5 T (≡c) are the measurements by μSR or NMR in a high- superconductor which show all the features of the line shape. We find λ=0.15±0.01 μm at 10 K and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ≡λ/ξ=69.6±1.4 constant between 30 and 75 K; this is the only measurement to date of κ in below the irreversibility temperature. Due to disorder in the vortex lattice, either from pinning or from vortex fluctuations that are quasistatic on the time scale of SR, the observed line shape is ‘‘smeared’’ relative to that predicted for a perfect lattice. From the degree of smearing, we estimate an upper limit of 5.5% for the rms deviation of individual vortices from their ideal positions.
- Received 7 February 1995
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.52.10569
©1995 American Physical Society