Melting of 'porous' vortex matter
Abstract
Bitter decoration and magneto-optical studies reveal that in heavy-ion irradiated superconductors, a 'porous' vortex matter is formed when vortices outnumber columnar defects (CDs). In this state ordered vortex crystallites are embedded in the 'pores' of a rigid matrix of vortices pinned on CDs. The crystallites melt through a first-order transition while the matrix remains solid. The melting temperature increases with density of CDs and eventually turns into a continuous transition. At high temperatures a sharp kink in the melting line is found, signaling an abrupt change from crystallite melting to melting of the rigid matrix.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0301227,
title = {Melting of 'porous' vortex matter},
author = {S. S. Banerjee and A. Soibel and Y. Myasoedov and M. Rappaport and E. Zeldov and M. Menghini and Y. Fasano and F. de la Cruz and C. J. van der Beek and M. Konczykowski and T. Tamegai},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0301227},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
(1) Paper to appear in Physical Review Letters. (2) 4 pages of text and 5 figures (3 figures in jpg and 2 figures in ps format). (3) Additional information about this work and Colored movies of the melting process can be obtained from http://www.weizmann.ac.il/home/fnsup/research-porous.html#movies