Intermediate State of Hard Superconductors

Abstract

The very large domains found in the intermediate state of hard superconductors are investigated. It is found that pure, annealed rhenium shows fine domains like other soft superconductors, but that coarse domains can be produced by cold-working the sample. Thus the large domains are not due to peculiar electronic properties of the hard superconductors, but to locally strained or impure boundary regions.