Magnetic field dependence of vortex activation energy: a comparison between MgB2, NbSe2 and Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 superconductors

The dissipative mechanism at low current density is compared in three different classes of superconductors. This is achieved by measuring the resistance as a function of temperature and magnetic field in clean polycrystalline samples of NbSe2, MgB2 and Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 (BSCCO) superconductors. Thermally activated flux flow behaviour is seen in all the three systems and clearly identified in bulk MgB2. While the activation energy at low fields for MgB2 is comparable to Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10, its field dependence follows a parabolic behaviour unlike a power-law dependence seen in Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10. We analyse our results based on Kramer's scaling for grain boundary pinning in MgB2 and NbSe2. (author)