Relaxation and pinning in spark-plasma sintered MgB₂ superconductor

The model of thermally activated relaxation developed and successfully tested on high-T _c superconductors (Jirsa et al 2004 Phys. Rev. B 70 0245251) was applied to magnetic data of a bulk spark-plasma sintered MgB₂ sample to elucidate its magnetic relaxation behavior. MgB₂ and the related borides form a superconductor class lying between classical and high-T _c superconductors. In accord with this classification, the relaxation phenomena were found to be about ten times weaker than in cuprates. Vortex pinning analyzed in terms of the field dependence of the pinning force density indicates a combined pinning by normal point-like defects and by grain surfaces. An additional mode of pinning at rather high magnetic fields (of still unknown origin) was observed.