Abstract
SUPERCONDUCTING domains have been detected in lead by means of an electron beam technique previously used to detect magnetic domains1. A spectroscopically pure cylinder of lead, 1.1 cm long and 0.28 cm in diameter, was mounted with its axis vertical in a modified horizontal electron diffraction camera. A 20-kV electron beam was focused about 15 cm from the cylinder and was deflected at 50 c/s in a vertical direction by means of suitable coils, so as to produce an electron shadow of the lead cylinder. Fig. 1c shows a photograph of a shadow taken with the lead in its normal state. In this case the smooth edge is merely a geometrical projection of part of the curved surface of the cylinder. The cylinder, which could be heated electrically by a non-inductively wound heater, was attached to the outside of a metal vessel containing liquid helium. A uniform magnetic field could be applied to the lead by means of a pair of small Helmholtz coils. These were mounted symmetrically on either side of the lead with their common axis horizontal and perpendicular to the mean direction of the undeflected electron beam.
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References
Blackman, M., Haigh, G., and Lisgarten, N. D., Nature, 179, 1288 (1957).
Shoenberg, D., Superconductivity (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1952).
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BLACKMAN, M., CURZON, A. & PAWLOWICZ, A. Use of an Electron Beam for detecting Superconducting Domains of Lead in its Intermediate State. Nature 200, 157 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/200157a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/200157a0
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