Time‐decay of magnetisation in high-Tc superconductors

An extension of Bean's model, incorporating the observed exponential decay, with increasing field, of critical current density in the high-T_c superconductors, is developed. It is used for explaining the various features of the isothermal magnetisation curves. Using this model, a calculation is presented for the time-decay of magnetisation after the sample is exposed to a magnetic field, and also after this applied field is switched off. The field dependence of the decay rate in these two conditions is calculated, and then compared with available results on the 90 K and the 40 K class of oxide superconductors. The results, in the limit of field-independent current density, also agree qualitatively with experimental results for the heavy fermion superconductor CeCu₂Si₂.