Superconductor strip geometrical barrier in the presence of a weak applied field

The geometrical barrier of a high aspect-ratio non-thin superconductor strip in the presence of a weak, normally-incident applied magnetic field is calculated employing exact expressions for the response of and vortex-structure in a strip. The calculated barrier has two symmetrically located minima near the strip edges and a local maximum at the strip's mid-point, all running along the strip. The commonly invoked geometrical barrier, characterized by an inverted-parabola-like shape and minimum at the strip's mid-point, is qualitatively reproduced for an applied-field sufficiently strong to saturate the geometrical barrier's edge-minima with pinned vortices. Trends of the calculated barrier as function of the strip dimensions and the applied-field magnitude are presented and discussed.