THE CRITICAL PAIR-BREAKING CURRENT IN SUPERCONDUCTORS

A new way of estimating the critical pair-breaking current is develope d. The superconducting charge carriers are considered as quantized vor tex-like objects, characterized by Gamma - the vortex strength, Gamma = h/2m. Taking into account that the charge carriers are confined in t he CuO planes, and applying the von Karman theory for vortex streets i n high-temperature superconductors, the critical velocity upsilon(c) a nd the critical pair-breaking current J(c) are derived. The results ar e in good agreement with the experimental data.