Paramagnetic Meissner Effect in Electrochemically Doped Indium-Tin Oxide Films

Abstract

Transparent conductive indium-tin oxide (ITO) thin films, electrochemically intercalated with alkali (Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+, Cs+), alkali earth (Mg+2, Ca+2), or complex NH\(_{4}^{+}\) ions, show tunable superconducting transitions with dome-shaped behavior of Tc versus electron density around the maximum at ∼ 5 K. On field cooling, the transition into the superconducting state is accompanied by a paramagnetic response, i.e., an increase of magnetization, rather than the usual diamagnetic Meissner response. We provide an extensive study of this so-called paramagnetic Meissner effect (PME), using DC SQUID, transport measurements and a variety of sample sizes and growth conditions. We show that the PME in electrochemically doped ITO films results from a higher Tc at the sample edges than at the center of disk-shaped samples, causing flux to be expelled towards the center of the disk, following the flux-compression theory of Koshelev and Larkin. Changing to the opposite spatial Tc profile largely removes the paramagnetic response. The paramagnetic magnetization is strongly influenced by sample geometry and flux pinning conditions. The reduction of pinning defects by thermal annealing removes the paramagnetic response. An alternation of the external magnetic field restores the usual Meissner diamagnetism.