New mechanism for propagation of a resistive phase in composite superconductors with a contact resistance

The propagation of a resistive phase generated by an initial thermal pulse in a composite superconductor with thermal and electrical contact resistance between the superconductor and the metal and with a transport current sufficient to cause resistive-phase splitting is investigated theoretically. The equations describing the system are solved numerically, and the results are presented in graphs. It is found that a self-constructing chain of equidistant resistive domains arises in the sample as a result of repeated splitting of the leading domain, as observed experimentally by Akhmetov et al. (1983).