High temperature superconductive flux gate magnetometer

A different type of HTS superconducting magnetometer based on the nonlinear magnetic behavior of bulk HTS materials is proposed and investigated. The device design is based on the generation of second harmonics which arise as a result of nonlinear magnetization observed in Type-II superconductors. Even harmonics are generated from the nonlinear interaction of an AC excitation signal with an external DC magnetic field which acts as a bias signal. It is shown that an increase in sensitivity of about one or two orders of magnitude is expected by use of more favorable geometries. An increase in frequency from 100 kHz to 100 MHz is expected to improve sensitivity by 30 dB.