Hysteresis losses in thick YBCO films: a linear componential analysis of magnetization in nearly parallel magnetic fields Original Research Article

We investigated the magnetization (M) hysteresis loops of micron-thick, c-axis-oriented YBCO films in magnetic fields applied nearly parallel to the film surface, θ⩽7°, where θ is an angle between magnetic field and the film surface. It is expected from the film geometry with a large aspect ratio (width/thickness) that M is dominated by the perpendicular magnetization (Mc) due to the shielding current flowing in the ab plane. However, we have first demonstrated that there is considerable contribution from the magnetization along the ab plane (Mab) when a medium field (≈0.1 T) is applied very close to the film surface (θ⩽0.4–2.0°, depending on temperature). We investigated the temperature and field dependence of hysteretic magnetization to outline the behavior of the hysteresis loss in an inclined field in practically interesting conditions.