Related papers: Peak Effect and the Transition from Elastic to Pla…
The peak effect has been investigated in clean Nb crystals with artificially corrugated surfaces by measuring the linear surface impedance in the 1kHz-1MHz frequency range. From a two-mode analysis of the complex spectra, we establish that…
In type-II superconductors, the magnetic field enters in the form of vortices; their flow under application of a current introduces dissipation and thus destroys the defining property of a superconductor. Vortices get immobilized by pinning…
We simulate the ordering of vortices and its effects on the critical current in superconductors with varied vortex-vortex interaction strength and varied pinning strengths for a two-dimensional system. For strong pinning the vortex lattice…
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…
Since it was first observed about 40 years ago [1], the peak effect has been the subject of numerous research mainly impelled by the desire to determine its exact mechanisms. Despite these efforts, a consensus on this question has yet to be…
We present a theoretical and experimental study of the peak effect in the surface pinning of vortices. It is associated with a sharp transition in the vortex slippage length which we relate to a crossover from a weakly disordered crystal to…
We use numerical minimization of a model free energy functional to study the effects of columnar pinning centers on the structure and thermodynamics of a system of pancake vortices in the mixed phase of highly anisotropic layered…
Recent experiments have revealed a giant "peak effect" in ultrapure high $T_c$ superconductors. Moreover, the new data show that the peak effect coincides exactly with the melting transition of the underlying flux lattice. In this work, we…
Motivated by the recent observations of the peak effect in high-$T_c$ YBCO superconductors, we reexamine the origin of this unusual phenomenon. We show that the mechanism based on the $k$-dependence (nonlocality) of the vortex-lattice tilt…
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…
The magnetic field $B$ dependence of the critical current $I_c$ for the vortex phase of a disordered superconductor is studied numerically at zero temperature. The $I_{c}(B)$ increases rapidly near the upper critical field $B_{c2}$ similar…
We present the results of a study of vortex arrangements in the peak-effect regime of 2H-NbSe_2 by scanning tunneling microscopy. By slowly increasing the temperature in a constant magnetic field, we observed a sharp transition from…
We examine vortex dynamics and pinning in layered superconductors using three-dimensional molecular dyanmics simulations of magnetically interacting pancake vortices. Our model treats the magnetic interactions of the pancakes exactly, with…
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…
We examine the depinning transitions and the temperature versus driving force phase diagram for magnetically interacting pancake vortices in layered superconductors. For strong disorder the initial depinning is plastic followed by a sharp…
We investigate numerically the dynamically generated plastic deformations of a 3D vortex lattice (VL) driven through a disorder potential with isolated, strong pinning centers (point-like or extended along the field direction). We find that…
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…
We report on transport and ac susceptibility studies below the peak effect in twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals. We find that disorder generated at the peak effect can be partially inhibited by forcing vortices to move with an ac driving…
Using numerical simulations of magnetically interacting vortices in disordered layered superconductors we obtain the static vortex phase diagram as a function of magnetic field and temperature. For increasing field or temperature, we find a…
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…