Electronic dislocation drag in superconductors at T < 1 K

Abstract

A large number of works have been aimed at investigating the change of metal flow stress at the superconducting transition. These dealt as a rule with metals and alloys whose superconducting transition temperature (T /sub c/ ) is within the range of temperatures produced by 4 He coolant (T greater than 1.3 K). Several metals that have lower transition points (Al at 1.175 K, Mo at 0.92 K, Zn at 0.825 K, Cd at 0.52 K) may prove helpful in understanding the mechanism of the phenomenon by yielding essentially new information on the influence of the superconducting state on plasticity. The supercondutors with low T /sub c/ are also convenient for investigation of the theoretically predicted Cooper pair destruction by moving dislocations. Besides, temperature lowering makes wider the range of investigation of superconductors studied earlier. These problems, studied by a new experimental technique, are the subject of the present paper.