Mesoscopic flux jumps in MgB2 films visualized by magneto-optical imaging

We report on the first spatially resolved observation of mesoscopic flux jumps in superconducting films. Magnetooptical imaging was used to visualize the flux penetration in MgB2 films subjected to a slowly varying perpendicular field. Below 10 K, flux jumps with typical size 10-20 microns and regular shape are found to occur at random locations along the flux front. The total number of vortices participating in one jump is varying between 50 and 10,000. Simultaneously, big dendritic jumps with dimensions comparable to the sample size (10(6)-10(8) vortices) are also found in this temperature range. We believe that both types of jumps result from thermo-magnetic instability. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.