Experimental Evidence for a Transverse Magnetization of the Abrikosov Lattice in Anisotropic Superconductors

Abstract

The torque on a superconductor in a magnetic field $H$ has been thought to be dominated by trapped flux or sample shape effects, but it has recently been suggested that an anisotropic type-II material should experience an intrinsic torque for ${H}_{c1}\ensuremath{\ll}H<{H}_{c2}$. The predicted phenomenon results from a transverse magnetization of the Abrikosov lattice. Measurements are presented on copper-oxide superconductors which delineate the experimental regime in which extrinsic effects are negligible and confirm the existence of the predicted intrinsic torque.