Flux pumping Flux pumping Flux pumping is a method for magnetising superconductors to fields in excess of 15 teslas. The method can be applied to any type II superconductor and exploits a fundamental property of superconductors. That is their ability to support and maintain currents on the length scale of the superconductor. Conventional magnetic materials are magnetised on a molecular scale which means that superconductors can maintain a flux density orders of magnitude bigger than conventional materials. Flux pumping is especially significant when one bears in mind that all other methods of magnetising superconductors require application of a magnetic flux density at
Magnetic flux quantum the value as one goes around the hole/loop and comes to the same starting point. If this is so, then one has magnetic flux quanta trapped in the hole/loop. Due to Meissner effect, the magnetic induction inside the superconductor is zero. More exactly, magnetic field penetrates into a superconductor over a small distance called London's magnetic field penetration depth (denoted and usually ). The screening currents also flow in this -layer near the surface, creating magnetization inside the superconductor, which perfectly compensates the applied field , thus resulting in inside the superconductor. It is important to note that the magnetic