Paramagnetic Meissner Effect Observed in SrBi 3 with κ Close to the Critical Regime

Vortex–vortex interaction plays an important role in determining the magnetic properties in different types of superconductors, among which rich phenomenons have been observed in superconductors with Ginzburg–Landau (GL) parameter κ close to the critical regime (between traditional type-I and type-II superconductors). Here, by using the flux method, we have grown a high-quality SrBi3 single crystal. The GL parameter has been determined to be 1.01 close to the phase transition temperature, making SrBi3 an ideal platform to study the nontrivial magnetic properties in relatively low-κ superconductors. The counterintuitive paramagnetic Meissner effect (PME) has been studied in our sample, and no giant PME is observed. Our results may suggest that vortex–vortex interaction plays a less dominant role in determining the PME compared with, for example, pinning and surface configurations.