The equilibrium topology of superconducting and normal domains in flat type-I superconductors is investigated. Important improvements with respect to previous work are that (1) the energy of the external magnetic field, as deformed by the presence of superconducting domains, is calculated in the same way for three different topologies and (2) calculations are made for arbitrary orientation of the applied field. A phase diagram is presented for the minimum-energy topology as a function of applied field magnitude and angle. For small (large) applied fields, normal (superconducting) tubes are found, while for intermediate fields, parallel domains have a lower energy. The range of field magnitudes for which the superconducting-tubes structure is favored shrinks when the field is more in-plane oriented.

• Received 28 June 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.104504