Magneto-optical studies of magnetization processes in high-Tc superconductors structure.

Magneto-optical imaging is a powerful tool for nondestructive quality control and scientific research through visualization of magnetic fields around any magnetic flux or current carrying sample. It allows real time observations of domain structures and their transformations in magnetics, static and dynamic field patterns due to inhomogeneous currents in electric circuits and superconductors, and reveals distortions of the fields due to defects. In addition to qualitative pictures showing different details in the intensities of the magneto-optical images, one can obtain quantitative maps of field distributions and retrieve values of the underlying currents or magnetization variations. In this review we discuss the advantages of magneto-optics for studies of superconductors, show its place among other techniques, and report recent results in magneto-optical investigations of high temperature superconductors (HTS)