Electrodynamic stabilization conditions for high-temperature superconducting composites with different types of current-voltage characteristic nonlinearity

The current instability is studied in high-temperature superconducting current-carrying elements with I–V characteristics described by power or exponential equations. Stability analysis of the macroscopic states is carried out in terms of a stationary zero-dimensional model. In linear temperature approximation criteria are derived that allow one to find the maximum allowable values of the induced current, induced electric field intensity, and overheating of the superconductor. A condition is formulated for the complete thermal stabilization of the superconducting composite with regard to the nonlinearity of its I–V characteristic. It is shown that both subcritical and supercritical stable states may arise. In the latter case, the current and electric field intensity are higher than the preset critical parameters of the superconductor. Conditions for these states depending on the properties of the matrix, superconductor’s critical current, fill factor, and nonlinearity of the I–V characteristic are discussed. The obtained results considerably augment the class of allowable states for high-temperature superconductors: it is demonstrated that there exist stable resistive conditions from which superconductors cannot pass to the normal state even if the parameters of these conditions are supercritical.