New Evidence of Interaction Between Grain and Boundaries Subsystems in Granular High-Temperature Superconductors

Granular high-temperature superconductors (HTSs) exhibit magnetotransport properties, including the clockwise magnetoresistance hysteresis. The hysteresis is explained by the concept of an effective field in the subsystem of grain boundaries, where the observed dissipation occurs. The effective field in the intergrain medium is determined by a superposition of the external field H and the field induced by the magnetic response of HTS grains. The magnetic flux compression in the intergrain medium provides an increase of the effective field. The magnetoresistance hysteresis of polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7-δ has a bright feature: In a fairly wide external field range, the hysteresis width ΔH(H) is found to be almost linear, ΔH ≈ H. This behavior is considered to be universal over the entire temperature range corresponding to the superconducting state (the investigations have been carried out at temperatures of 77 K and 4.2 K). The analysis of the magnetoresistive and magnetic properties has shown that the upper boundary of the field range of the ΔH ≈ H regime is consistent with the field of complete penetration into HTS grains. This is indicative of the strong interrelation between the magnetotransport and magnetic properties of granular HTSs.