Differential magneto-optical imaging of the vortex-lattice melting process in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8 crystals reveals unexpected effects of quenched disorder on the broadening of the first-order phase transition. The melting patterns show that the disorder-induced melting landscape T_m(H,r) is not fixed, but rather changes dramatically with varying field and temperature along the melting line. The changes in both the scale and shape of the landscape are found to result from the competing contributions of different types of quenched disorder which have opposite effects on the local melting transition.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0108299,
title = {Temperature variations of the disorder-induced vortex-lattice melting landscape},
author = {A. Soibel and Y. Myasoedov and M. L. Rappaport and T. Tamegai and S. S. Banerjee and E. Zeldov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0108299},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages of text and 3 figures. Accepted for Publication in Physical Review Letters