Nonlinear microwave response of YBCO single crystal in constant magnetic field

Abstract

The generation of a microwave second harmonic by a YBCO single crystal in a dc magnetic field was studied. We found that the signal existed only when there was a direct screening current. As a result, the pinning current as a function of magnetic field can be derived directly from the second harmonic intensity versus the magnetic field. The experimental data were interpreted in terms of a generalized model of the critical state taking into account diffusion of vortices and the absence of a barrier stopping vortices from leaving the sample. We have shown that, in a decreasing dc magnetic field, the current density is considerably lower than both the critical and screening current densities in an increasing dc field. Our experiments indicate that vortices are not the sources of radiation at the double frequency. A relation between the mechanism of harmonic generation in the Meissner phase and modulation of the order parameter by the microwave magnetic field (Ginzburg-Landau nonlinearity) is discussed. It is remarkable that, by measuring the second harmonic intensity in the Meissner state versus temperature, one can obtain the magnetic field penetration depth as a function of temperature with fairly good accuracy.