Slow voltage oscillations in Ag-doped superconducting Y-Ba-Cu-O

The time effects in Ag-doped YBa2Cu3O7−x sample (YBCO/Ag) were examined by means of transport relaxation measurements (V-t curves). At well-defined values of transport current (I), temperature (T) and external magnetic field (H), an abrupt rise in sample voltage was observed at the early stage of the relaxation process. After reducing the initial current to a finite value, the sample voltage levels off within a very short time. The rapid voltage drops seen in V-t curves were attributed to the rapid dynamic reorganization of flux lines traversing the sample edges. These observations were also interpreted as an indication of doping of YBCO with Ag and easy suppression of superconducting order parameter due to the presence of Ag. In addition, we investigated the influence of bidirectional square wave (BSW) current on the evolution of V-t curves at different temperatures and external magnetic fields. It was observed that a nonlinear response seen in V-t curves to BSW current with sufficiently short periods or sufficiently low amplitude reflects itself as regular sinusoidal- type voltage oscillations, which were discussed mainly in terms of the dynamic competition between pinning and depinning.