Critical current characteristics and history dependence in superconducting SmFeAsOF bulk

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The superconducting SmFeAsO1−xFx (x=0.2) polycrystalline bulks were prepared by the powder-in-tube (PIT) method. The magnetic field and temperature dependences of critical current densities in the samples were investigated by resistive and ac inductive (Campbell's) methods. It was found that a fairly large shielding current density over 109 A/m2, which is considered to correspond to the local critical current density, flows locally with the perimeter size similar to the average grain size of the bulk samples, while an extremely low transport current density of about 105 A/m2 corresponding to the global critical current density flows through the whole sample. Furthermore, a unique history dependence of global critical current density was observed, i.e., it shows a smaller value in the increasing-field process than that in the decreasing-field process. The history dependence of global critical current characteristic in our case can be ascribed to the existence of the weak-link property between the grains in SmFeAsO1−xFx bulk.