Peak effect in a superconductor/normal-metal strip in a vortex-free state

We theoretically predict that the critical current $I_c$ and magnetization\n$M$ of hybrid superconductor/normal-metal (SN) strip may have nonmonotonous\ndependence on perpendicular magnetic field - so called peak effect. In contrast\nto familiar peak effect, which is connected either with vortex entry to the\nsuperconductor or with peculiarities of vortex pinning, the found phenomenon\nexists at low fields, in the vortex-free (Meissner) phase. We argue that the\neffect appears at specific parameters of studied hybrid structure when its\nin-plane current-supervelocity relation has two maxima. We expect that the same\npeak effect may exist in two-band superconductors (like MgB$_2$) where similar\ncurrent-supervelocity dependence was predicted at low temperatures.\n