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In layered superconductors with very weak coupling between the layers the concept of a flux-line lattice breaks down when the field is oriented parallel to the superconducting planes. For an arbitrary field orientation we propose that the formation of an Abrikosov lattice is only related to the perpendicular field component. The parallel field component penetrates as if the superconducting planes were completely decoupled. This model explains recent experiments which have questioned the driving mechanism for dissipation in the superconducting phase of the high-temperature oxide superconductors.

We report the experimental and theoretical study of electrostatically driven granular material. We show that the charged granular medium undergoes a hysteretic phase transition from the immobile condensed state (granular solid) to a fluidized dilated state (granular gas) with a changing applied electric field. In addition we observe a spontaneous precipitation of dense clusters from the gas phase and subsequent coarsening-coagulation of these clusters. Molecular dynamics simulations show qualitative agreement with experimental results.

The homogeneous state of a ferromagnet-superconductor bilayer (FSB) with the magnetization perpendicular to the layer can be unstable with respect to the formation of vortices in the superconducting layer. The developing topological instability in the FSB leads to formation of domains in which the direction of the magnetization in the magnetic film and the direction of vorticity in the superconducting film alternate together. This is a new, combined topological structure, which does not appear in isolated layers. Equilibrium domains can appear in the FSB even if the single magnetic film is in a monodomain state.

We investigated the driven dynamics of vortices confined to mesoscopic flow channels by means of a dc-rf interference technique. The observed mode-locking steps in the IV curves provide detailed information on how both the number of vortex rows and the lattice structure in each flow channel change with magnetic field. Minima in flow stress occur when an integer number of rows is moving coherently, while maxima appear when the incoherent motion of mixed n and n+/-1 row configurations is predominant. Simulations show that the enhanced pinning at mismatch originates from quasistatic fault zones with misoriented edge dislocations induced by disorder in the channel edges.