Abstract
THE well-known London equations dictate that the magnetic field inside a stationary superconductor vanishes. The same equations, however, predict that the superconductor generates a magnetic field when it is put into uniform rotation. The associated magnetic moment is known as the London moment. Here we show that high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) superconducting oxides indeed possess this fundamental property, and when rotated, develop a London moment of the same magnitude as that of conventional superconductors, provided that the signal is scaled to the shielded volume fraction. This confirms that high-Tc superconductivity corresponds to a superfluid phase in the London sense, and that the mass of the carriers that appears in the expression of the London moment is the free-electron mass, irrespective of the nature of the carriers in the normal state.
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Verheijen, A., van Ruitenbeek, J., de Bruyn Ouboter, R. et al. Measurement of the London moment in two high-temperature superconductors. Nature 345, 418–419 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/345418a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/345418a0
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