First observation of flux avalanches in a-MoSi superconducting thin films

Abstract

We have observed the occurrence of dendritic flux avalanches in an amorphous film of Mo${}_{84}$Si${}_{16}$. These events are understood to have a thermomagnetic origin and involve the abrupt penetration of bursts of magnetic flux taking place within a limited window of temperatures and magnetic fields. While dc-magnetometry allows one to determine the threshold fields for the occurrence of the thermomagnetic instabilities, magneto-optical imaging reveals the spatial distribution of magnetic flux throughout the sample. Conducting appropriate experiments, typical for this goal, avalanches were confirmed to be a characteristic of this material, ruling out the otherwise admissible possibility of an experimental artifact or a feature related to defects in the film. After the present observation, a-MoSi can be included in the gallery of superconducting materials exhibiting flux avalanches when in the form of thin films, a characteristic that must be carefully taken into consideration when one plans to employ films of those materials in applications.

Presented on ASC 2014 and submitted to IEEE TRANSACTION ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY (Special Issue)

References in corpus (3)

• Onset of dendritic flux avalanches in superconducting films
• Avalanche-driven fractal flux distributions in NbN superconducting films
• Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors fabricated from an amorphous Mo0.75Ge0.25 thin film

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Impact of border defects on the magnetic flux penetration in superconducting films
• Active control of thermomagnetic avalanches in superconducting Nb films with tunable anisotropy
• Transport mechanism in amorphous molybdenum silicide thin films
• Scaling Behavior of Quasi-One-Dimensional Vortex Avalanches in Superconducting Films