25 research outputs found
Ratchet Effects for Vortices in Superconductors with Periodic Pinning Arrays
Using numerical simulations we show that novel transport phenomena can occur
for vortices moving in periodic pinning arrays when two external perpendicular
ac drives are applied. In particular, we find a ratchet effect where the
vortices can have a net dc drift even in the absence of a dc drive. This
ratchet effect can occur for ac drives which create orbits that break one or
more reflection symmetries.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures; Proceedings of Third European
Conference on Vortex Matter in Superconductor
Rectification and Flux Reversals for Vortices Interacting with Triangular Traps
We simulate vortices in superconductors interacting with two-dimensional
arrays of triangular traps. We find that, upon application of an ac drive, a
net dc flow can occur which shows current reversals with increasing ac drive
amplitude for certain vortex densities, in agreement with recent experiments
and theoretical predictions. We identify the vortex dynamics responsible for
the different rectification regimes. We also predict the occurrence of a novel
transverse rectification effect in which a dc flow appears that is transverse
to the direction of the applied ac drive.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figure
Temperature and ac Effects on Charge Transport in Metallic Arrays of Dots
We investigate the effects of finite temperature, dc pulse, and ac drives on
the charge transport in metallic arrays using numerical simulations. For finite
temperatures there is a finite conduction threshold which decreases linearly
with temperature. Additionally we find a quadratic scaling of the
current-voltage curves which is independent of temperature for finite
thresholds. These results are in excellent agreement with recent experiments on
2D metallic dot arrays. We have also investigated the effects of an ac drive as
well as a suddenly applied dc drive. With an ac drive the conduction threshold
decreases for fixed frequency and increasing amplitude and saturates for fixed
amplitude and increasing frequency. For sudden applied dc drives below
threshold we observe a long time power law conduction decay.Comment: 6 pages, 7 postscript figure
Plastic Flow, Voltage Bursts, and Vortex Avalanches in Superconductors
We use large-scale parallel simulations to compute the motion of
superconducting magnetic vortices during avalanches triggered by small field
increases. We find that experimentally observable voltage bursts correspond to
pulsing vortex movement along branched channels or winding chains, and relate
vortex flow images to features of statistical distributions. As pin density is
increased, a crossover occurs from interstitial motion in narrow easy-flow
winding channels with typical avalanche sizes, to pin-to-pin motion in broad
channels, characterized by a very broad distribution of sizes. Our results are
consistent with recent experiments.Comment: 4 pages, Latex, 4 figures included. Movies available at
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~nor
Dynamic Vortex Phases and Pinning in Superconductors with Twin Boundaries
We investigate the pinning and driven dynamics of vortices interacting with
twin boundaries using large scale molecular dynamics simulations on samples
with near one million pinning sites. For low applied driving forces, the vortex
lattice orients itself parallel to the twin boundary and we observe the
creation of a flux gradient and vortex free region near the edges of the twin
boundary. For increasing drive, we find evidence for several distinct dynamical
flow phases which we characterize by the density of defects in the vortex
lattice, the microscopic vortex flow patterns, and orientation of the vortex
lattice. We show that these different dynamical phases can be directly related
to microscopically measurable voltage - current V(I) curves and voltage noise.
By conducting a series of simulations for various twin boundary parameters we
derive several vortex dynamic phase diagrams.Comment: 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Dynamics and Melting of Stripes, Crystals, and Bubbles with Quenched Disorder
Two-dimensional systems in which there is a competition between long-range
repulsion and short range attraction exhibit a remarkable variety of patterns
such as stripes, bubbles, and labyrinths. Such systems include magnetic films,
Langmuir monolayers, polymers, gels, water-oil mixtures, and two-dimensional
electron systems. In many of these systems quenched disorder from the
underlying substrate may be present. We examine the dynamics and stripe
formation in the presence of both an applied dc drive and quenched disorder.
When the disorder strength exceeds a critical value, an applied dc drive can
induce a dynamical stripe ordering transition to a state that is more ordered
than the originating undriven, unpinned pattern.Comment: 6 pages, 7 postscript figures; Proceedings of International Workshop
on Anomalous Distributions, Nonlinear Dynamics and Nonextensivity, Santa Fe,
200
Transverse Phase Locking for Vortex Motion in Square and Triangular Pinning Arrays
We analyze transverse phase locking for vortex motion in a superconductor
with a longitudinal DC drive and a transverse AC drive. For both square and
triangular arrays we observe a variety of fractional phase locking steps in the
velocity versus DC drive which correspond to stable vortex orbits. The locking
steps are more pronounced for the triangular arrays which is due to the fact
that the vortex motion has a periodic transverse velocity component even for
zero transverse AC drive. All the steps increase monotonically in width with AC
amplitude. We confirm that the width of some fractional steps in the square
arrays scales as the square of the AC driving amplitude. In addition we
demonstrate scaling in the velocity versus applied DC driving curves at
depinning and on the main step, similar to that seen for phase locking in
charge-density wave systems. The phase locking steps are most prominent for
commensurate vortex fillings where the interstitial vortices form symmetrical
ground states. For increasing temperature, the fractional steps are washed out
very quickly, while the main step gains a linear component and disappears at
melting. For triangular pinning arrays we again observe transverse phase
locking, with the main and several of the fractional step widths scaling
linearly with AC amplitude.Comment: 10 pages, 14 postscript figure
London equation studies of thin-film superconductors with a triangular antidot lattice
We report on a study of vortex pinning in nanoscale antidot defect arrays in
the context of the London Theory. Using a wire network model, we discretize the
array with a fine mesh, thereby providing a detailed treatment of pinning
phenomena. The use of a fine grid has enabled us to examine both circular and
elongated defects, patterned in the form of a rhombus. The latter display
pinning characteristics superior to circular defects constructed with the
similar area. We calculate pinning potentials for defects containing zero and
single quanta, and we obtain a pinning phase diagram for the second matching
field, .Comment: 10 pages and 14 figure
Quantum Interference in Superconducting Wire Networks and Josephson Junction Arrays: Analytical Approach based on Multiple-Loop Aharonov-Bohm Feynman Path-Integrals
We investigate analytically and numerically the mean-field
superconducting-normal phase boundaries of two-dimensional superconducting wire
networks and Josephson junction arrays immersed in a transverse magnetic field.
The geometries we consider include square, honeycomb, triangular, and kagome'
lattices. Our approach is based on an analytical study of multiple-loop
Aharonov-Bohm effects: the quantum interference between different electron
closed paths where each one of them encloses a net magnetic flux. Specifically,
we compute exactly the sums of magnetic phase factors, i.e., the lattice path
integrals, on all closed lattice paths of different lengths. A very large
number, e.g., up to for the square lattice, exact lattice path
integrals are obtained. Analytic results of these lattice path integrals then
enable us to obtain the resistive transition temperature as a continuous
function of the field. In particular, we can analyze measurable effects on the
superconducting transition temperature, , as a function of the magnetic
filed , originating from electron trajectories over loops of various
lengths. In addition to systematically deriving previously observed features,
and understanding the physical origin of the dips in as a result of
multiple-loop quantum interference effects, we also find novel results. In
particular, we explicitly derive the self-similarity in the phase diagram of
square networks. Our approach allows us to analyze the complex structure
present in the phase boundaries from the viewpoint of quantum interference
effects due to the electron motion on the underlying lattices.Comment: 18 PRB-type pages, plus 8 large figure
Transverse depinning in strongly driven vortex lattices with disorder
Using numerical simulations we investigate the transverse depinning of moving
vortex lattices interacting with random disorder. We observe a finite
transverse depinning barrier for vortex lattices that are driven with high
longitudinal drives, when the vortex lattice is defect free and moving in
correlated 1D channels. The transverse barrier is reduced as the longitudinal
drive is decreased and defects appear in the vortex lattice, and the barrier
disappears in the plastic flow regime. At the transverse depinning transition,
the vortex lattice moves in a staircase pattern with a clear transverse
narrow-band voltage noise signature.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure