Current-induced resistivity hysteresis in detwinned YBa2Cu3O7−δ single crystals

Abstract Resistivity-temperature and voltage-current characteristics of clean detwinned YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7−δ single crystals have been measured using a SQUID picovoltmeter in magnetic fields of up to 5 T. We have observed hysteretic behaviour near T m in the ϱ(T) dependence: the resistivity when warming the sample up (the “superheated” state) was lower than when cooling it down (the “supercooled” state). The V-I characteristics for the sample in the “superheated” and “supercooled” states were also found to be different. We have found that the “superheated” state is unstable and can be switched to the “supercooled” state by applying a comparatively low probing current density ( j ∼ 0.4A/cm 2 ). We relate the current-induced resistivity hysteresis to the rearrangement of the solid vortex domains due to the probing current.