Campbell penetration in the critical state of type-II superconductors

Abstract

The penetration of an ac magnetic signal into a type-II superconductor residing in the Shubnikov phase depends on the pinning properties of Abrikosov vortices. Within a phenomenological theory, the so-called Campbell penetration depth ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{C}}$ is determined by the curvature $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ at the bottom of the effective pinning potential. Preparing the sample into a critical state, this curvature vanishes and the Campbell length formally diverges. We make use of the microscopic expression for the pinning force density derived within strong pinning theory and show how flux penetration on top of a critical state proceeds in a regular way.