Hydrostatic pressure induced transition from {\delta}Tc to {\delta}l pinning mechanism in MgB2

TL;DR

This study investigates how hydrostatic pressure affects the vortex pinning mechanisms and critical current density in MgB2, revealing a transition from {}T_c to {}l pinning regimes and associated changes in superconducting properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that hydrostatic pressure induces a transition in the dominant pinning mechanism in MgB2 from {}T_c to {}l, providing new insights into pressure effects on superconductivity.

Findings

Pressure causes a transition from {}T_c to {}l pinning regime.

Critical temperature decreases from 39.7 K to 37.7 K under pressure.

High-field Jc drops more rapidly with pressure.

Abstract

The impact of hydrostatic pressure up to 1.2 GPa on the critical current density (Jc) and the nature of the pinning mechanism in MgB2 have been investigated within the framework of the collective theory. We found that the hydrostatic pressure can induce a transition from the regime where pinning is controlled by spatial variation in the critical transition temperature ({\delta}T_c) to the regime controlled by spatial variation in the mean free path ({\delta}l). Furthermore, Tc and low field Jc are slightly reduced, although the Jc drops more quickly at high fields than at ambient pressure. We found that the pressure raises the anisotropy and reduces the coherence length, resulting in weak interaction of the vortex cores with the pinning centres. Moreover, the hydrostatic pressure can reduce the density of states [Ns(E)], which, in turn, leads to a reduction in the critical temperature from 39.7 K at P = 0 GPa to 37.7 K at P = 1.2 GPa.