'Inverse' melting of a vortex lattice

Avraham, Nurit; Khaykovich, Boris; Myasoedov, Y.; Rappaport, Michael; Shtrikman, Hadas; Feldman, D. E.; Tamegai, T.; Kes, P.H.; Li, Ming; Kończykowski, M.; Beek, C.J. van der; Zeldov, E.

doi:10.1038/35078021

Cited by 269 publications

(243 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…Both these properties have been exploited to completely suppress the irreversible out-of-plane magnetisation in BSCCO single crystals by applying a simultaneous 1kHz ac dithering field in the a-b plane [68]. There are also a number of functional vortex devices that could potentially arise from interacting crossing lattices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vortex chains in anisotropic superconductors

Bending¹,

Dodgson²

2005

J. Phys.: Condens. Matter

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High-cT superconductors in small magnetic fields directed away from the crystal symmetry axes have been found to exhibit inhomogeneous chains of flux lines (vortices), in contrast to the usual regular triangular flux-line lattice. We review the experimental observations of these chains, and summarize the theoretical background that explains their appearance. We treat separately two classes of chains: those that appear in superconductors with moderate anisotropy due to an attractive part of the interaction between tilted flux lines, and those with high anisotropy where the tilted magnetic flux is created by two independent and perpendicular crossing lattices. In the second case it is the indirect attraction between a flux line along the layers (Josephson vortex) and a flux line perpendicular to the layers (pancake vortex stack) that leads to the formation of chains of the pancake vortex stacks. This complex system contains a rich variety of phenomena, with several different equilibrium phases, and an extraordinary dynamic interplay between the two sets of crossing vortices. We compare the theoretical predictions of these phenomena with the experimental observations made to date. We also contrast the different techniques used to make these observations. While it is clear that this system forms a wonderful playground for probing the formation of structures with competing interactions, we conclude that there are important practical implications of the vortex chains that appear in highly anisotropic superconductors.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vortex chains in anisotropic superconductors

Bending¹,

Dodgson²

2005

J. Phys.: Condens. Matter

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“…Experimental results suggest that an increase in temperature above a certain critical value T m determines the transition to a liquid phase, [5][6][7] while the effects of disorder associated with high magnetic fields are responsible for the insurgence of a glassy phase. [8][9][10] A deep theoretical understanding of such transition phenomena, accounting for their microscopic origin, has not been achieved yet.…”

Section: Grain-boundary-induced Meltingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As in conventional matter strong enough fluctuations destroy longrange order: when temperature is raised the vortex lattice melts into a vortex liquid. [5][6][7] Fluctuations are also provided by quenched disorder that is intrinsically present in these materials, leading to complex glassy phases. [8][9][10][11][12][13] While several experimental methods have been used to investigate vortex matter, a direct image of the geometrical and topological properties of the vortices can be obtained by the Bitter decoration technique.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grain boundaries in vortex matter

2005

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We explore the statistical properties of grain boundaries in the vortex polycrystalline phase of type-II superconductors. Treating grain boundaries as arrays of dislocations interacting through linear elasticity, we show that self-interaction of a deformed grain boundary is equivalent to a nonlocal long-range surface tension. This affects the pinning properties of grain boundaries, which are found to be less rough than isolated dislocations. The presence of grain boundaries has an important effect on the transport properties of type-II superconductors as we show by numerical simulations: our results indicate that the critical current is higher for a vortex polycrystal than for a regular vortex lattice. Finally, we discuss the possible role of grain boundaries in vortex lattice melting. Through a phenomenological theory we show that melting can be preceded by an intermediate polycrystalline phase.

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“…18 At present the origin of the peak effect in low-T c and high-T c superconductors is commonly associated with the proliferation of dislocations in the flux-line lattice. [1][2][3][4][5][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] At this first order phase transition 3,[19][20][21][22] induced by quenched disorder in the vortex system, a transformation of a quasiordered Bragg glass 23 into a disordered amorphous vortex phase occurs. Although different criteria 3,[12][13][14] are used for determining the exact position of this transition on the peak-shaped dependence of the critical current density on H, they all lead to qualitatively similar H − T phase diagrams, and, for definiteness only, we shall imply below that the phase transition corresponds to the line of the maximum critical current density, H p (T ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peak effect, vortex-lattice melting line, and order-disorder transition in conventional and high-Tcsuperconductors

2001

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We investigate the order-disorder transition line from a Bragg glass to an amorphous vortex glass in the H − T phase diagram of three-dimensional type-II superconductors taking into account both pinning-caused and thermal fluctuations of the vortex lattice. Our approach is based on the Lindemann criterion and on results of the collective pinning theory and generalizes previous work of other authors. It is shown that the shapes of the order-disorder transition line and the vortex lattice melting curve are determined only by the Ginzburg number, which characterizes thermal fluctuations, and by a parameter which describes the strength of the quenched disorder in the fluxline lattice. In the framework of this unified approach we obtain the H − T phase diagrams for both conventional and high-Tc superconductors. Several well-known experimental results concerning the fishtail effect and the phase diagram of high-Tc superconductors are naturally explained by assuming that a peak effect in the critical current density versus H signalizes the order-disorder transition line in superconductors with point defects.

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'Inverse' melting of a vortex lattice

Cited by 269 publications

References 29 publications

Vortex chains in anisotropic superconductors

Vortex chains in anisotropic superconductors

Grain boundaries in vortex matter

Peak effect, vortex-lattice melting line, and order-disorder transition in conventional and high-Tcsuperconductors

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