Related papers: "Vortex-melting front" in thin superconductors wit…
Thermal fluctuations and disorder play an essential role in high-T$_c$ superconductors. After reviewing the mean-field phase diagram we describe significant modifications that result when the effects of finite temperature and disorder are…
The hexatic fluid refers to a phase in between a solid and a liquid which has short range positional order but quasi-long range orientational order. In the celebrated theory of Berezinskii, Kosterlitz and Thouless and subsequently refined…
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 question of whether layer decoupling and vortex-lattice melting occur seperately or not in the mixed phase of pristine layered superconductors in the extreme type-II limit is studied through a partial duality analysis of the layered XY…
A gel consists of a network of particles or molecules formed for example using the sol-gel process, by which a solution transforms into a porous solid. Particles or molecules in a gel are mainly organized on a scaffold that makes up a…
Magnetization and its relaxation have been measured on Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2 single crystals with Tc = 39 K. The magnetization hysteresis loops (MHLs) exhibit flux jumps in the low temperature region, and a second peak-effect in the intermediate…
Ferromagnetic superconductors are exceptionally rare because the strong ferromagnetic exchange field usually destroys singlet superconductivity. EuFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$, an iron-based superconductor with a maximum critical temperature…
In a recent Letter Mola et al. \cite{mola} reported magnetization measurements $M(H,\theta)$ performed on the organic superconductor $\kappa-$(ET)$_2$Cu(NCS)$_2 (T_c = 9.1$ K) as a function of the magnetic field $H$ applied at different…
Time resolved magneto-optical images show hysteresis associated with the transition at the so-called ``second magnetization peak'' at B_sp in single-crystalline Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8+d. By rapid quenching of the high-field phase, it can be made…
The second magnetization peak (SMP) appears in most superconductors and is crucial for the understanding of vortex physics as well as the application. Although it is well known that the SMP is related to the type and quantity of…
We present an exhaustive analysis of transport measurements performed in twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals which stablishes that the vortex solid-liquid transition is first order when the magnetic field H is applied at an angle theta away…
A layered antiferromagnetic superconductor in the mixed state may posses magnetic domains created along the Josephson vortices. This may happen when an external magnetic field is strong enough to flip over magnetic moments, lying in the…
A phenomenological model is proposed for melting of a vortex lattice, based on screening of the elastic shear modulus by mobile or partially pinned dislocations. A first-order softening line is found and ends at a critical point beyond…
Destruction of the vortex lattice by random point pinning is considered as a mechanism of the ``second peak'' transition observed experimentally in weakly coupled layered high temperature superconductors. The transition field separating the…
Resistance in superconductors arises from the motion of vortices driven by flowing supercurrents or external electromagnetic fields and may be strongly affected by thermal or quantum fluctuations. The common expectation borne out in…
Placing a high-Tc superconductor in an increasing external magnetic field, the flux first penetrates the sample through an Abrikosov vortex lattice, and then a first order transition is observed by which the system goes to the normal phase.…
Using scanning tunnelling microscopy at 400mK, we have obtained maps of around 100 vortices in SnMo6S8 from 2 - 9T. The orientational and positional disorder at 5 and 9T show that these are the first large-scale images of a vortex glass. At…
The concept of the transition of type II superconductor into the Abrikosov state as the appearance of long-range phase coherence is considered. It is shown that this transition should be first order in ideal (without disorder)…
The flux lattice melting temperature in optimally doped YBCO has been shown to be very close to that of the onset of fluctuations around H_{c2}(T). Here, we present a theoretical argument in support of the idea that this occurs because the…
In type-I superconductors, zero electrical resistivity and perfect diamagnetism define two fundamental criteria for superconducting behavior. In contrast, type-II superconductors exhibit more complex mixed state physics, where magnetic flux…