D. Braithwaite et al., SCALING PROPERTIES OF THE ANISOTROPIC CRITICAL-CURRENT DENSITY IN BULK TEXTURED YBACUO - EVIDENCE TOWARD A 3D FLUX-LINE-LATTICE, Journal of low temperature physics, 91(1-2), 1993, pp. 1-11
We have measured dc transport critical current densities of melt textu
re grown and magnetically melt textured bulk YBaCuO at 77 K and in mag
netic field. A maximum value of over 31,000 A/cm2 is obtained with a f
ield of 7 teslas applied parallel to the (a, b) planes. Over the rest
of the angular range the critical current is shown to be determined ma
inly by the c-axis component of the applied field. Although this depen
dency is expected in the presence of two-dimensional vortices, in fact
the data are shown to correspond better to the behavior expected of a
n anisotropic three-dimensional superconductor. These results are comp
ared to magnetization measurements on the same samples. We show that w
hen the field is directed close to the c-axis, superconducting transpo
rt currents flow at fields well above the field at which the irreversi
ble magnetization disappears.