Related papers: Elastic-to-plastic crossover below the peak effect…
A sharp maximum in the critical current $J_c$ as a function of temperature just below the melting point of the Abrikosov flux lattice has recently been observed in both low and high temperature superconductors. This peak effect is strongest…
We review our studies of elastic lattices driven by an external force $F$ in the presence of random disorder, which correspond to the case of vortices in superconducting thin films driven by external currents. Above a critical force $F_c$…
Disorder induced melting, where the increase in positional entropy created by random pinning sites drives the order-disorder transition in a periodic solid, provides an alternate route to the more conventional thermal melting. Here, using…
We have investigated the magnetic phase diagram of a fully oxygenated detwinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystal by means of magneto-caloric and magnetization measurements, and found thermodynamic evidence for a temperature dependent first-order…
In a type II superconductor in a moderate magnetic field, the superconductor to normal state transition may be described as a phase transition in which the vortex lattice melts into a liquid. In a biaxial superconductor, or even a uniaxial…
We present here some striking discrepancies in the results of ac and dc magnetization measurements performed in a single crystal of low Tc superconductor, Yb3Rh4Sn13. Fingerprint of a transition from an ordered vortex lattice a la Bragg…
Vortex breaking has been traditionally studied for nonuniform critical current densities, although it may also appear due to nonuniform pinning force distributions. In this article we study the case of a…
We introduce a system where an elastic lattice of particles is moved slowly at a constant velocity under the influence of a local external potential, construct a rigid-body model through simplification processes, and show that the two…
Vortex matter in layered high-$T_c$ superconductors, including iron-pnictides, undergo several thermodynamic phase transitions due to the complex interplay of pinning energy, thermal energy and elastic energy. Moreover, the presence of…
Using micro-bridge technique, we have studied the vortex dynamics in a very low temperature region (i.e. T/Tc -> 0) of the B-T phase diagram of Bi_2Sr_2Ca_1Cu_2O_{8+\delta} single crystal. We distinguish two types of vortex dynamics near…
Active systems, from bacterial suspensions to cellular monolayers, are continuously driven out of equilibrium by local injection of energy from their constituent elements and exhibit turbulent-like and chaotic patterns. Here we demonstrate…
We explore the effect of varying drive on metastability features exhibited by the vortex matter in single crystals of 2H-NbSe$_2$ and CeRu$_2$ with varying degree of random pinning. An optimal balance between the pinning and driving force…
The vortex response to various ac-drives has been studied in high quality $YBa_2Cu_4O_8$ single crystals. Well within the vortex solid phase a re-entrant resistive state has been observed that is characterized by long relaxation times.…
We study a 3D model of driven vortices in weakly coupled layered superconductors with strong pinning. Above the critical force $F_c$, we find a plastic flow regime in which pancakes in different layers are uncoupled, corresponding to a…
The vortex lattice (VL) in the high-kappa superconductor YBa2Cu3O7, at 2 K and with the magnetic field parallel to the crystal c-axis, undergoes a sequence of transitions between different structures as a function of applied magnetic field.…
We report a crucial experimental test of the present models of the peak effect in weakly disordered type-II superconductors. Our results favor the scenario in which the peak effect arises from a crossover between the Larkin pinning length…
Large scale numerical simulations are used to study the elastic dynamics of two-dimensional vortex lattices driven on a disordered medium in the case of weak disorder. We investigate the so-called elastic depinning transition by decreasing…
What characterises a solid is its way to respond to external stresses. Ordered solids, such crystals, display an elastic regime followed by a plastic one, both well understood microscopically in terms of lattice distortion and dislocations.…
By measuring magnetization hysteresis loops of the superconducting HgBa$_2$Ca$_2$Cu$_3$O$_8$ single crystals ($T_{\rm c}$ = 133 K), we observed three magnetization peaks in a wide temperature region. This is in contrast to the previous…
Sub-nanovolt resolution longitudinal and Hall voltages are measured in an ultra pure YBa2Cu3O7-d single crystal. The Hall anomaly and the first-order vortex-lattice melting transition are observed simultaneously. Changes in the dynamic…