Superconducting intermediate state of white tin studied by muon-spin-rotation spectroscopy - art. no. 024524

The local magnetic field in the bulk of superconducting single crystal beta tin was measured near and across the transition between the normal (N) and intermediate (I) state at T= 0.08 K. With varying applied field H-a, the d ata indicate a reversible phase transition within the I state at H(t)approx imate to 295 Oe, interpreted as a transition from the laminar to a tubular structure. Near the I-->N transition, occurring at H-ct = 0.98H(c0) = 300 O e, the field B in the N domains is strongly inhomogeneous with (B) over bar < H-c0, it grows with the decrease of H-a towards the value H-c0 = 305.5 +/ - 0.5 Oe. On lowering H-a in the N state, a large "field supercooling" (<de lta>H/H-c approximate to 6%) of this state was observed.