PHYSlCA

ELSEVIER
Physica C 272 (1996) 137-141

Scaling law for vortex dynamics in Rb3C60 superconductor

M.W. Lee a,*, M.F. Tai b, J.B. Shi c
a Department of Physics, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 402 Taiwan b Department of Physics, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, 621 Taiwan c Department of Electronic Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, 407 Taiwan
Received 26 September 1996

Abstract

AC susceptibility of the Rb3C6o superconductor shows a weak dependence on ac magnetic-field frequency f. The temperature, Tp, where X" is maximum, rises with increasing frequency and the effect is enhanced as the dc magnetic-field amplitude H,l is increased. The temperature is found to obey a scaling law (1 - Tp/Tc)3/2 = 1.9 10-4Hdc[ln(fo/f) + 23] + 8 lO-5[In(fo/f)+23], where fo (-- 101 s-t) is a characteristic frequency and Hdc is in tesla. The scaling relationship is in good agreement with the predicted equation based on the model of thermally activated flux motion.

1. Introduction

An interesting new feature of the high temperature superconductors is the observation of the "irreversibility line", first reported by Miiller et al. [1]. This line separates the region in the magnetic plane M(H, T) into the reversible and irreversible regions. Yeshrun and Malozemoff found that the irreversibility line of a Y-Ba-Cu-O crystal follows the form [2]

1 - t o t H 2/3,

(1)

where t - - T / T ~ is the reduced temperature and H the magnetic field; the results resembled the phenomena in spin-glass systems. Applications of superconductors require a good understanding of this irreversibility behavior. The recently discovered alkalimetal doped fullerene superconductors exhibit not

* Corresponding author. Fax: + 886 4286 2534; e-mail: mwl@ phys.nchu.edu.tw.

only the highest T~ among organic superconductors [3], but reasonably large critical current density (Jc --- 10 l A / m 2) [4]. This suggests large pinning forces in these new superconductors. Therefore it will be interesting to investigate the irreversibility behavior of these new materials. AC susceptibility techniques are now widely used in the characterization of superconductors. The imaginary part X" measures the power dissipation of the sample in an ac magnetic field. Theories show that the frequency dependence of X" is closely related to the flux dynamics of a superconductor therefore the techniques are suitable for studying this vortex dynamics behavior [5]. Recently we studied the ac susceptibility of Rb3C60 crystals and the results suggest flux pinning in the sample [6]. In the present work we carried out further analysis on the ac susceptibility results of the same sample. The frequency dependence of the temperature where X" is maximum is found to obey a scaling law. By incorporating the frequency effect into Tinkham's previous

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results [7], we obtain a scaling law that describes the vortex dynamics of a superconductor in an ac magnetic field. The predicted scaling relationship is in good agreement with the experimental results.

Rb3C6o

2. Experimental

The Rb3C60 superconductor sample was prepared

using C60 crystals with typical dimensions of 0.3 x

0.3 0.2 mm 3 [8]. Details of the sample preparation procedure and characterization results were described in an earlier report [6]. The sample has a transition temperature T~ of 30.8 K (onset of diamagnetism) and a superconducting volume fraction of approximately 70%. ac susceptibility measurements were carried out with a Lakeshore 7221 ac susceptometer. The time-varying magnetic field is H a = Hdc "1" hac cos(2zrft), where Hdc is the dc magnetic field ranging from 0 to 1 T, h~ is the ac magneticfield amplitude ranging from 0 . 1 0 e to 25 Oe, and f is the frequency of the alternating magnetic field ranging from 125 Hz to 10 kHz. In our experiment the condition Hdc >> hac is always satisfied. Near the X"-peak temperatures data were collected at 0.1 K intervals.

29.,~

29.3

29.4

29.5
T (K)

29.6

29.7

29.8

Fig. I. X" as a function of temperature at various frequencies for the data points near the temperature where X" is maximum, T0, for Rb3C60.

3. Results and discussion

The measured ac susceptibility exhibits weak dependence on ac frequency. A typical temperature dependence of X" for the data points near Tp at various frequencies is shown in Fig. 1, where Tp denotes the temperature of the X" peak. Here Hoe = 7 kOe and hac = 1 0 e . The variations of Tp with f are small but discernible: Tp shifts to higher temperature with increasing f. As f changes from 1 kHz to 10 kHz, the shift in Tp, ATp, is about 40 mK. The frequency dependences of Tp in various Hdc fields are shown in Fig. 2, where the logarithmic frequency is plotted against the temperature ( 1 - Tp/Tc) 3/2. The results exhibit reasonably good linear relationships. As Hdc is increased, the lines become less steep, indicating a dependence on magnetic field Ha. We express the lines in Fig. 2 by a linear equation
1 ~ x3/2 - rp) = p In f + q,

where tp is the reduced temperature Tp/T~ and the numerical constants p and q are both functions of Hdc. In Eq. (2) p corresponds to the inverse line slope and q corresponds to the x-axis intercept at In f = 0. The fitted p and q as a function of//de are shown in Fig. 3; both p and q show roughly linear dependence on Hdc. Fitting with linear equations we obtain p = - l . 9 10-4Hd--810 -5 and q = 8.6 10-3Hdc -t- 3.7 10 -3. Substituting p and q, Eq. (2) becomes (1 - to)
-,3/2

= - 1.9 X 10-4Hdc(ln f - - 46)

-- 8 10 -5 In f + 3.7 10 -3.
(3)

Including the characteristic frequency f0 (typically ~- 10 j s-l), Eq. (3) becomes (1 - tp)
. x3/2

= 1.9 X lO-4Hoc[ln(fo/f) .1. 23] + 8 10-5 [In(f0/) .1.23]. (4)

(2)

where Hd~ is in tesla. To interpret the observed scaling relationship of Eq. (4), we first start with Anderson's flux-creep model [9]. In nonideal type II superconductors with pinning, flux lines can be pinned at pinning centers. At finite temperatures, according to Anderson, flux lines can jump among pinning sites through thermal

M.W. Lee et al./Physica C 272 (1996) 137-141

12

139

Rb3C8o
11

Hdc (kOe)
10

hoc
4-

1 Oe

2 9

10

--

Kim assumed that Uo equals ( H 2 / 8 ~ r ) times a characteristic activation volume [10], which they assumed to be 3, where H c corresponds to the thermodynamic critical field and ~: the coherent length; i.e., U0 = ( H 2 / 8 ~ r ) ~ 3. An alternative expression for the activation volume was recently proposed by Yeshrun and Malozemoff [2]. They assumed that the volume is limited laterally by the area of a single flux line in the flux line lattice, which is approximately a~, where a 0 is the flux line spacing; thus the volume is a~ ~. Then the activation energy is U0 =/3 ( H 1/87r )a~ ~:, (5) /3 is introduced here to absorb all numerical factors and its actual value need to be determined experimentally, With this activation energy and using the Ginzburg-Landau theory, Tinkham found an explicit expression for the temperature dependence of U0,

5 0.002

i 0.004

i
0.010 0.012

0.006

0.008

(I-T p /T c) 3/2
Fig. 2. Logarithmic frequency as a function of (1 - T p / T ) 3/2 in various dc fields for Rb3C6o, where TO corresponds to the temperature of maximal X".

Uo/kaT = [ CJco/TcB ]4( 1 _/)3/2,

c = 3V /36g/2ckB

=/380.7 10 -8 (T K mZ/A), where ~b0 is the flux quantum, Jc0 the intrinsic Ginzburg-Landau depairing critical current density at T = 0 K, and B the magnetic induction. The equation is simplified as

activation with a jumping rate f = f o e x p ( - U o / kBT), where fo is the attempt frequency (typically 109~ 1012 s - l ) and U0 is the barrier height for thermal activation. To estimate Uo, Anderson and 3
v v

Uo/kBT= ( A / B ) ( I - t) 3/2, (6) where A = 4CJco/T c. Because in our ac measurements the temperature Tp where X" is maximum is
very close to Tc, the Ginzburg-Landau approximations are valid. With this normalized activation energy, Tinkham proposed that the resistivity pf arising from thermally activated flux motion is the same as the case of thermally activated phase motion in a heavily damped Josephson junction [7], which was worked out by Ambegaokar and Halperin [11]. Then the resistivity pf is

0.02

--

p
1

o.01 q

Pf/Pn = Io[ A(1 - t)3/2/2B]

0 0 2 0.00

2,

10

12

Hdc(kG)
Fig. 3. DC magnetic field dependence for p and q, where p and q correspond to the coefficients of Eq. (2), (1 - To /To) 3/2 = p In f + q, which represents the lines in Fig. 2. The triangles correspond to p (in 10 -4 scale) and circles correspond to q; the solid lines represent the best linear fits.

where p, is the normal state resistivity and I o is the modified Bessel function. In the cases when U0 :~ kBT, the above equation approximates

pf/p. -. ( Uo/kBT ) exp( - Uo/kaT ) .

Taking the logarithm on both sides, the equation approximates

In(pf/p.)

Uo/kBT.

(7)

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To relate the resistivity to the driving frequency, we assume that the resistivity pf arising from thermally activated flux motion increases linearly with the magnetic field frequency, i.e. pf c t f . This is reasonable because when the frequency is higher, flux lines, driven by the Lorentz force J x B / c , move at higher velocity v; this induces a larger electric field E = B X v / c and results in a larger dissipation pf. We notice an interesting analogy occurs when flux motion is in the flow regime. In this case, there is no pinning in the superconductor and flux motion is retarded only by viscous damping. An explicit expression for flux-flow dissipation was worked out by Clem who showed that the in this case, the reduced temperature t v where X" is maximum occurs at the condition when al/iXo27rf/pf is equal to a constant of 2.5, where a is the radius of a cylindrical sample; thus pf is again proportional to f [5]. Hence one can express this as f / f o = Pf/Pn, where f0 corresponds to a characteristic frequency in the normal state. Then Eq. (7) becomes l n ( f / f o ) = - Uo/ka T. Using Eq. (6), this becomes l n ( f i f o ) = - A(1 - tp)X/2/B. Inserting A, one obtains (1 \3/2 TcB - 'p) = 4CJc----~ln(fo/f).
.

RbsC6o

10 s

I 5

I 10

I 15

I 20

I 25

30

T (K) Fig. 4. Magnetic critical current density Jco as a function of

temperature. The solid line is a guide to the eyes.

is in gauss [12]. The estimated Jc0 as a function of temperature is shown in Fig. 4; Jc0 increases roughly linearly with decreasing temperature. Extrapolating to 0 K, we obtain Jc0(0) = 1.6 X 106 A / c m 2. Using this and T~ = 30.8 K, Eq. (9) becomes (1 - t p )
,,3/2

=6

10-4flHdc l n ( f o / f ) ,

(10)

(8)

In our experiment the applied field is in the intermediate range H~l ": Hdc .e~ Hc 2 and B -- Hdc. The above equation can be expressed as
-- /'p)
=

4CJc------'~ln(f0/f)-

(9)

This equation predicts the scaling relation between the X"-peak temperature tp and frequency f. The equation contains only two parameters - J~o and T~that are sample dependent. We can make an estimate of the numerical constant in Eq. (9) by using the experimentally determined parameters of the Rb3C60 sample. To estimate Jet, we performed dc hysteresis loop measurements on the sample and the critical current density is calculated by the relationship based on the modified Bean's model J~o = (30 A M ) / d , where d (in cm) is the average particle size and AM

where Hdc is in tesla. This scaling law, derived based on the model of thermally activated flux motion, is essentially in agreement with the observed scaling relationship Eq. (4). The predicted dependences on frequency and magnetic field are the same as the experimental results; the predicted numerical constant 6 10 - 4 is roughly a factor of 3 larger than that observed in Eq. (4), which is rather good. The second term on the right-hand side of Eq. (4) is not predicted in the theory. A similar but less explicit scaling relationship was predicted by Chen [13]. We should point out here that the assumed expression in Eq. (5) for activation energy U0, especially the activation volume, is rather simplified; the actual volume can be affected the density of pins, the range of pinning potential, the mean distance of flux jumping, etc; collective pinning can also complicate the problem. Nonetheless, considering that many approximations were made in deriving Eq. (9), the agreement with the experiment is satisfactory. However, the fact that some terms in Eq. (4) are not predicted by Eq. (9) indicates that the theory needs further improvement.

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4. Conclusion

The temperature of X" maximum in Rb3C60 superconductors rises with increasing ac frequency and this effect is enhanced as the dc magnetic field is increased. The dependence follows a scaling law. Based on the model o f thermally activated flux motion, we obtain a scaling law which is in good agreement with the experimental results. This implies that flux lines are normally pinned at pinning centers and magnetic flux relaxes through thermal activation.

Acknowledgement
This work is supported by grant No. NSC852112-M-005-010, from the National Science Council of Taiwan.

[2] Y. Yeshrun and A.P. Malozemoff, Phys. Rev. Lett. 60 (1988) 2202. [3] T. lshignro and K. Yamaji, Organic Superconductors, Springer Series in Solid-State Physics, Vol. 88 (Springer, Berlin 1990). [4] C. Politis, V. Buntar and V.P. Seminozhenko, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 7 (1993) 2163. [5] J.R. Clem, in: Magnetic Susceptibility of Superconductors and Other Spin Systems, eds. R.A. Hein, T.L. Francavilla and D.H. Liebenberg (Plenum, New York, 1992) p. 177. [6] M.W. Lee, J.B. Shi and S.C. Luo, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 35 (1996) 3396. [7] M. Tinkham, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61 (1988) 1658. [8] J.B. Shi, W.Y. Chang, S.R. Su and M.W. Lee, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 35 (1996) L45. [9] P.W. Anderson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 9 (1962) 309. [10] P.W. Anderson and Y.B. Kim, Rev. Mod. Phys. 36 (1964) 39. [11] V. Ambegaokar and B.I. Halperin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 22 (1969) 1364. [12] A.M. Campbell and J.E. Evetts, Adv. Phys. 21 (1972) 199. [13] Q.Y. Chen, in: Magnetic Susceptibility of Superconductors and other Spin Systems, eds. R.A. Hein, T.L. Francavilla and T.H. Liebenberg (Plenum, New York, 1992) p. 81.

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