Critical state analysis of orthogonal flux interactions in pinned superconductors

Abstract

We show that, based on the critical state model for flux-line pinning in hard superconductors, one can assess the magnetic moment relaxation induced by the oscillations of a perpendicular magnetic field. Our theory follows a recent proposal of using phenomenological 2D modeling for the description of crossed field dynamics in high-T$_c$ superconductors [{\tt arXiv:cond-mat/0703330}]. Stationary regimes with either saturation to metastable configurations, or complete decay to the thermodynamic equilibrium are obtained. The transition between both types of response is related to the disappearance of a flux free core within the sample. As a common feature, a step-like dependence in the time relaxation is predicted for both cases. The theory may be applied to long bars of arbitrary and non homogeneous cross section, under in-plane magnetic field processes.