Type-1.5 Superconductor - Non-technical Explanation

Non-technical Explanation

In Type-I and Type-II superconductors charge flow patterns are dramatically different. Type I has two state-defining properties: Lack of electric resistance and the fact that it does not allow an external magnetic field to pass through it. When a magnetic field is applied to these materials, superconducting electrons produce a strong current on the surface which in turn produces a magnetic field in the opposite direction. Inside this type of superconductor, the external magnetic field and the field created by the surface flow of electrons add up to zero. That is, they cancel each other out. In Type II superconducting materials where a complicated flow of superconducting electrons can happen deep in the interior. In Type II material, a magnetic field can penetrate, carried inside by vortices which form Abrikosov vortex lattice. In type-1.5 superconductor there are two superconducting components. There the external magnetic field can produce clusters of tightly packed vortex droplets because in such materials vortices should attract each other at large distances and repel at short length scales. Since the attraction originates in vortex core's overlaps in one of the superconducting components, this component will be depleted in the vortex cluster. Thus a vortex cluster will represent two competing types of superflow. One component will form vortices bunched together while the second component will produce supercurrent flowing on the surface of vortex clusters in a way similar to how electrons flow on the exterior of Type I superconductors. These vortex clusters are separated by "voids," with no vortices, no currents and no magnetic field.