Square and rectangular thin superconductors in a transverse magnetic field

Flux avalanche in a superconducting film with non-uniform critical current density

The flux avalanche in type-II superconducting thin film is numerically simulated in this paper. We mainly consider the effect of non-uniform critical current density on the thermomagnetic stability. The nonlinear electromagnetic constitutive relation of the superconductor is adopted. Then, Maxwell's equations and heat diffusion equation are numerically solved by the fast Fourier transform technique. We find that the non-uniform critical current density can remarkably affect the behaviour of the flux avalanche. The external magnetic field ramp rate and the environmental temperature have been taken into account. The results are compared with a film with uniform critical current density. The flux avalanche first appears at the interface where the critical current density is discontinuous. Under the same environmental temperature or magnetic field, the flux avalanche occurs more easily for the film with the non-uniform critical current density. The avalanche structure is a finger-like pattern rather than a dendritic structure at low environmental temperatures.

Plasmonic graphene transparent conductors

Plasmonic graphene is fabricated using thermally assisted self-assembly of silver nanoparticles on graphene. The localized surface-plasmonic effect is demonstrated with the resonance frequency shifting from 446 to 495 nm when the lateral dimension of the Ag nanoparticles increases from about 50 to 150 nm. Finite-difference time-domain simulations are employed to confirm the experimentally observed light-scattering enhancement in the solar spectrum in plasmonic graphene and the decrease of both the plasmonic resonance frequency and amplitude with increasing graphene thickness. In addition, plasmonic graphene shows much-improved electrical conductance by a factor of 2-4 as compared to the original graphene, making the plasmonic graphene a promising advanced transparent conductor with enhanced light scattering for thin-film optoelectronic devices.