Commissioning and modification of the low temperature scanning polarization microscope (TTSPM) and imaging of the local magnetic flux density distribution in superconducting niobium samples

The dissertation is separated into two different parts, which will be presented in the following. Part I of the dissertation is about the commissioning and the modification of the ''low-temperature scanning polarization microscope'' which was designed in a previous dissertation of Stefan Guenon [1]. A scanning polarization microscope has certain advantages compared to conventional polarization microscopes. With a scanning polarization microscope it is easily possible to achieve a high illumination intensity, which is important to realize a high signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, the confocal design of the scanning polarization microscope improves the resolution of the microscope by a factor of 1.4. Normally, it is not necessary to post-process the images by means of differential frame method to eliminate the contrast of non-magnetic origin. In contrast to conventional polarization microscopes the low-temperature scanning polarization microscope is able to image electronic transport properties via beam-induced voltage variation in addition to the magneto-optical effects. In this dissertation, it was possible to demonstrate the performance capability of the scanning polarization microscope at room temperature as well as at low temperatures. The investigation of the polar Kerr-effect has been carried out with a BaFe₁₂O₁₉-test sample whereas the measurements of the longitudinal Kerr-effect have been carried out with an in-plane magnetized acceleration sensor. Furthermore, an independent room temperature construction for out-of-plane measurements in a magnetic field up to 1 Tesla has been designed and implemented within the framework of a diploma thesis, supervised by the author of this dissertation. Using this construction, it was possible to gain experimental results regarding the interlayer exchange coupling between iron-terbium alloys (Fe_1-xTb_x) and cobalt-platinum multilayers (vertical stroke Co/Pt vertical stroke _n). Indeed, it has been possible to image the magnetization reversal process and thus the formation (or destruction) and the migration of an ''Interfacial Domain Wall'' (IDW) in such a Fe_1-xTb_x/ vertical stroke Co/Pt vertical stroke _n-heterostructure. Part II of the dissertation is about the magneto-optical imaging of superconducting Niobium coplanar microwave resonators as well as of a Niobium single crystal. By means of the magneto-optical images of the resonators, important findings about magnetic hysteresis effects in such coplanar microwave resonators could be achieved. It was also possible to confirm the results of transmission spectroscopy experiments on those coplanar resonators, which were performed in a previous dissertation of Daniel Bothner. Additionally, it was possible to show that initially inserted Abrikosov vortices can be almost completely removed from the coplanar resonators again by properly cycling the magnetic field. On the basis of magneto-optical images of a 2 mm thick Niobium single crystal, it was possible to observe dendritic avalanches in a superconducting bulk material for the first time. Here, the dendritic avalanches only appear in a very narrow temperature interval of about a tenth of a Kelvin below the critical temperature T_c of the Niobium single crystal. Below this threshold temperature the magnetic flux penetrates nearly homogeneously into the single crystal. The observed dendritic avalanches in the bulk single crystal near T_c have features which are identical to those seen in thin films at low temperatures caused by thermomagnetic instability. Therefore, one can conclude that the dendritic avalanches in the single crystal are formed in a thin superconducting layer at the surface of the single crystal, which can be formed under certain conditions near T_c.