Visualizing the mechanism that determines the critical current density in polycrystalline superconductors using time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory

In polycrystalline superconducting materials optimized for high critical current density (JC) in high magnetic fields, the mechanism that determines JC has long remained uncertain because of the complicated manner in which the fluxon-fluxon and fluxon-microstructure forces combine. In this work, the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations are used to produce visualizations of fluxons at JC that show the disorder in the pinned part of the flux-line lattice and the motion of those fluxons along grain boundaries that cause dissipation. Calculated values of JC are consistent with experimental data.