Influence of a transport current on the local magnetic field distribution in sintered YBa2Cu3Ox

The influence of a transport current on the magnetic flux-line distribution in sintered YBCO was studied by means of μSR. Pronounced differences between zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) signals and irreversible behavior were observed. In the ZFC case even a small transport current (10 A/cm2) tends to orderirreversibly the inhomogeneous flux-line distribution considerably, suggesting a broad distribution of pinning barriers. However, for a FC sample no noticeable change in the flux distribution in the presence of a transport current (up to 40 A/cm2) was detected, indicating that the FC state represents a stable flux-line configuration.