Giant Magnetostriction Jumps in Conventional NbTi Superconductor

A. Nabiałeka, S. Vasilieva, b, V. Chabanenkob, P. Aleksyeyeva, ;b, V. Rusakovc, S. Piechotaa and H. Szymczaka aInstitute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Lotników 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland bDonetsk Physico-Technical Institute, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, 72 R. Luxemburg str., 83114 Donetsk, Ukraine cDonetsk National University, 24 Universitetskaya str., 83-055 Donetsk, Ukraine

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Received: 25 09 2005;

Magnetostriction of a large slab of conventional NbTi superconductor, with a diameter of about 6 mm, was investigated by the strain gauge technique. At the temperature of 4.2 K and in the external magnetic field of several T we found irreversible magnetostriction of an order of 10-5, where the number means the relative changes of the slab diameter. This large magnetostriction is accompanied by giant magnetostriction jumps, caused by thermomagnetic avalanches. These thermomagnetic avalanches also cause giant jumps of the surface magnetization, which can be observed by using the Hall probes. The results were analyzed in the framework of the pinning induced magnetostriction model.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.109.633 PACS numbers: 74.25.Qt, 74.70.Ad, 75.80.+q