Upper critical field for superconductors with edges and corners

The effect of non-smoothness of sample surfaces on the value of the upper critical field and on the location of superconductivity nucleation is discussed. It is shown that, superconducting samples with edges and corners have higher value of comparing to samples with smooth surfaces. Superconductivity nucleates first at the top and bottom edges in a cylinder with a finite height, and nucleates first at vertices in a cuboid. Received: 10 September 2000 / Accepted: 11 May 2001 / Published online: 19 October 2001