Surface superconductivity and twinning-plane superconductivity in aluminum

The critical supercooling field H{sub sc} is measured in aluminum single crystals and twinned bicrystals in a temperature range slightly below T{sub c0} (T{sub c0} - 0.055 K < T < T{sub c0}), where T{sub c0} is the critical superconducting transition temperature. It is found that, even in this small temperature range, the H{sub sc}(H{sub c}) dependence, which is considered to be identical to the H{sub c3}(H{sub c}) dependence for single crystals, is substantially nonlinear. The H{sub sc}(H{sub c}) dependences of the twinned bicrystals and single crystals are shown to be significantly different. The qualitative features of the phase diagram of the twinned aluminum bicrystals coincide with those of the phase diagram of twinning-plane superconductivity obtained earlier. These findings allow the conclusion that the phenomenon of twinning-plane superconductivity also exists in face-centered cubic crystal lattices.