Piezomagnetism and Stress Induced Paramagnetic Meissner Effect in Mechanically Loaded High-T_c Granular Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper predicts two novel phenomena in high-T_c granular superconductors under stress: a stress-induced paramagnetic moment and a mechanically induced paramagnetic Meissner effect, based on the piezophase effect in Josephson junctions.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of piezomagnetism and stress-induced paramagnetic Meissner effect in mechanically loaded high-T_c granular superconductors, based on the piezophase effect.

Findings

Prediction of stress-induced paramagnetic moment at zero magnetic field.

Proposal of mechanically induced paramagnetic Meissner effect.

Discussion of experimental conditions for observing these effects.

Abstract

Two novel phenomena in a weakly coupled granular superconductor under an applied stress are predicted which are based on recently suggested piezophase effect (a macroscopic quantum analog of the piezoelectric effect) in mechanically loaded grain boundary Josephson junctions. Namely, we consider the existence of stress induced paramagnetic moment in zero applied magnetic field (piezomagnetism) and its influence on a low-field magnetization (leading to a mechanically induced paramagnetic Meissner effect). The conditions under which these two effects can be experimentally measured in high-T_$ granular superconductors are discussed.