Related papers: Peak-effect and surface crystal-glass transition f…
The peak effect in critical current density J_c is investigated by studying the flux dynamics in V_3Si using bulk magnetometry, small-angle neutron scattering, and transport measurements on clean single-crystal samples from the same ingot.…
We address the question of probing the supercurrents in superconducting (SC) samples on a local scale by performing Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy (STS) experiments with a SC tip. In this configuration, we show that the tunneling…
We study the vortex-dynamics of a BaFe{1.82}Ni_{0.18}As_2 crystal with Tc = 8 K, by measuring flux-creep over the second magnetisation (or fish-tail) peak for both H//c-axis and H//ab planes. Magnetic relaxation data show an anomalously…
Enormous enhancement in the viscosity of a liquid near its glass transition is generally connected to the growing many-body static correlations near the transition, often coined as `amorphous ordering'. Estimating the length scales of such…
We study the equilibrium configuration of a nematic liquid crystal bounded by a rough surface. The wrinkling of the surface induces a partial melting in the degree of orientation. This softened region penetrates the bulk up to a length…
The ratchet effect is demonstrated theoretically for the simple model of a vortex in a thin superconducting film interacting with a periodic array of magnetic dipoles placed in the vicinity of the film . The pinning potential for the vortex…
The theory presented is based on a simple Hamiltonian for a vortex lattice in a weak impurity background which includes linear elasticity and plasticity, the latter in the form of integer valued fields accounting for defects. Within a…
We have explored the presence of a two-peak feature spanning the peak effect (PE) region in the ac susceptibility data and the magnetization hysteresis measurements over a wide field-temperature regime in few weakly pinned single crystals…
The interplay between disorder and vortex--vortex interactions in strongly disordered superconductors in a magnetic field can stabilize a vortex-glass state, characterized by strong pinning and the absence of positional order. Yet its role…
We present measurements of how a single vortex line in superfluid helium interacts with a macroscopic bump on the chamber wall. At a general level our measurements confirm computational work on vortex pinning by a hemispherical bump, but…
We present a comprehensive investigation of the field-dependent critical current density and pinning force, combined with a detailed analysis of the nanostructural defect landscape in single crystal of underdoped PrFeAs(O,F) superconductor.…
The surface impedance Z(f) of conventional isotropic materials has been carefully measured for frequencies f ranging from 1 kHz to 3 MHz, allowing a detailed investigation of the depinning transition. Our results exhibit the irrelevance of…
It is shown that the large effect of heavy ion-irradiation on the thermodynamical properties of the anisotropic superconductor YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-\delta}$ extends well into the superconducting fluctuation regime. The presence of the…
We explore the smectic liquid crystal order in a cell with a "dirty" substrate imposing random pinnings. Within harmonic elasticity we find a subtle three-dimensional surface disorder-driven transition into a pinned smectic-glass,…
A slab in parallel field is submitted to a step-like magnetic-field excitation, of amplitude 1--10 G, in the same direction as the applied field. The slab has been rolled or spark cut, without special care, from a conventional…
We characterize the mechanisms of vortex pinning in a superfluid thin film described by the two-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We consider a vortex "scattering experiment" whereby a single vortex in a superfluid flow interacts with…
A variety of soft and hard condensed matter systems are known to form stripe patterns. Here we use numerical simulations to analyze how such stripe states depin and slide when interacting with a random substrate and with driving in…
The phase diagram of a driven two-dimensional vortex lattice in the presence of dense quasi-point pins is investigated. The transition from the crystal to the liquid is found continuous at intermediate inductions. The correlations in the…
As a guideline for experimental tests of the ideal glass transition (Random Pinning Glass Transition, RPGT) that shall be induced in a system by randomly pinning particles, we performed first-principle computations within the Hypernetted…
The melting transition of the vortex lattice in highly anisotropic, layered superconductors with commensurate, periodic columnar pins is studied in a geometry where magnetic field and columnar pins are normal to the layers. Thermodynamic…