Large magneto-thermal-switching ratio in superconducting Pb wires

Abstract

Thermal switching by magnetic fields is one of the important functionalities in thermal management technologies. In low-temperature devices, superconducting states can be used as a magneto-thermal-switching (MTS) component, because carrier thermal conductivity (\k{appa}) is strongly suppressed in superconducting states. Recently, we demonstrated that the MTS ratio (MTSR) of pure Nb reached 650% at a temperature (T) of 2.5 K under a magnetic field (H) of 4.0 kOe [M. Yoshida et al., Appl. Phys. Express 16, 033002 (2023)]. In this study, to enrich knowledge on MTS of superconductors, the MTSRs of pure Pb wires with 5N and 3N purities were investigated by measuring the temperature or magnetic field dependences of \k{appa}. For 5N-Pb, a large MTSR exceeding 1000% was observed below 3.6 K under H > 600 Oe. Although higher MTSRs were expected at lower temperatures under H > 600 Oe, the obtained data under those conditions were accompanied by large errors due to magnetic-field-induced huge \k{appa} at low temperatures. In contrast, the \k{appa} for 3N-Pb were observed to be clearly lower than that for 5N-Pb. Although the magnetic-field-induced change in \k{appa} was small, the MTSR at T = 2.5 K was 300%. These results suggest that Pb is a promising material for low-temperature magneto-thermal switching because of wide-range \k{appa} tunable by magnetic field and the purity.