SURFACE-TENSION AND KINETIC COEFFICIENT FOR THE NORMAL/SUPERCONDUCTING INTERFACE - NUMERICAL RESULTS VERSUS ASYMPTOTIC ANALYSIS

The dynamics of the normal/superconducting interface in type-I superconductors has recently been derived from the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity. In a suitable limit these equations are mapped onto a free-boundary problem, in which the interfacial dynamics are determined by the diffusion of magnetic flux in the normal phase. The magnetic field at the interface satisfies a modified Gibbs-Thomson boundary condition which involves both the surface tension of the interface and a kinetic coefficient for motion of the interface. In this paper we calculate the surface tension and kinetic coefficient numerically by solving the one-dimensional equilibrium Ginzburg-Landau equations for a wide range of values. We compare our numerical results to asymptotic expansions valid for 1, 1/ 2, and 1, in order to determine the accuracy of these expansions. © 1994 The American Physical Society.