483 research outputs found
Tilted and crossing vortex chains in layered superconductors
In the presence of the Josephson vortex lattice in layered superconductors, a
small c-axis magnetic field penetrates in the form of vortex chains. In
general, the structure of a single chain is determined by the ratio of the
London [] and Josephson [] lengths, . The chain is composed of tilted vortices at large
's (tilted chain) and at small 's it consists of a crossing
array of Josephson vortices and pancake-vortex stacks (crossing chain). We
study chain structures at intermediate 's and found two types of phase
transitions. For the ground state is given by the crossing
chain in a wide range of pancake separations .
However, due to attractive coupling between deformed pancake stacks, the
equilibrium separation can not exceed some maximum value depending on the
in-plane field and . The first phase transition takes place with
decreasing pancake-stack separation at , and rather
wide range of the ratio , . With
decreasing , the crossing chain goes through intermediate strongly-deformed
configurations and smoothly transforms into a tilted chain via a second-order
phase transition. Another phase transition occurs at very small densities of
pancake vortices, , and only when exceeds a
certain critical value . In this case a small c-axis field penetrates
in the form of kinks. However, at very small concentration of kinks, the kinked
chains are replaced with strongly deformed crossing chains via a first-order
phase transition. This transition is accompanied by a very large jump in the
pancake density.Comment: Proceeding of the NATO ARW "Vortex dynamics in superconductors and
other complex systems", Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine, 13-17 September 2004, To be
published in the Journ. of Low Temp. Phys., 16 pages, 6 figure
Noncommutative Field Theories and (Super)String Field Theories
In this lecture notes we explain and discuss some ideas concerning
noncommutative geometry in general, as well as noncommutative field theories
and string field theories. We consider noncommutative quantum field theories
emphasizing an issue of their renormalizability and the UV/IR mixing. Sen's
conjectures on open string tachyon condensation and their application to the
D-brane physics have led to wide investigations of the covariant string field
theory proposed by Witten about 15 years ago. We review main ingredients of
cubic (super)string field theories using various formulations: functional,
operator, conformal and the half string formalisms. The main technical tools
that are used to study conjectured D-brane decay into closed string vacuum
through the tachyon condensation are presented. We describe also methods which
are used to study the cubic open string field theory around the tachyon vacuum:
construction of the sliver state, ``comma'' and matrix representations of
vertices.Comment: 160 pages, LaTeX, 29 EPS figures. Lectures given by I.Ya.Aref'eva at
the Swieca Summer School, Brazil, January 2001; Summer School in Modern
Mathematical Physics, Sokobanja, Yugoslavia, August 2001; Max Born Symposium,
Karpacz, Poland, September, 2001; Workshop "Noncommutative Geometry, Strings
and Renormalization", Leipzig, Germany, September 2001. Typos corrected,
references adde
Evidence for LineLike Vortex Liquid Phase in TlBaCaCuO Probed by the Josephson Plasma Resonance
We measured the Josephson plasma resonance (JPR) in optimally doped
TlBaCaCuO thin films using terahertz time-domain
spectroscopy in transmission. The temperature and magnetic field dependence of
the JPR frequency shows that the c-axis correlations of pancake vortices remain
intact at the transition from the vortex solid to the liquid phase. In this
respect TlBaCaCuO films, withanisotropy parameter
, are similar to the less anisotropic
YBaCuO rather than to the most
anisotropic BiSrCaCuO single crystals ).Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Josephson vortices and solitons inside pancake vortex lattice in layered superconductors
In very anisotropic layered superconductors a tilted magnetic field generates
crossing vortex lattices of pancake and Josephson vortices (JVs). We study the
properties of an isolated JV in the lattice of pancake vortices. JV induces
deformations in the pancake vortex crystal, which, in turn, substantially
modify the JV structure. The phase field of the JV is composed of two types of
phase deformations: the regular phase and vortex phase. The phase deformations
with smaller stiffness dominate. The contribution from the vortex phase
smoothly takes over with increasing magnetic field. We find that the structure
of the cores experiences a smooth yet qualitative evolution with decrease of
the anisotropy. At large anisotropies pancakes have only small deformations
with respect to position of the ideal crystal while at smaller anisotropies the
pancake stacks in the central row smoothly transfer between the neighboring
lattice positions forming a solitonlike structure. We also find that even at
high anisotropies pancake vortices strongly pin JVs and strongly increase their
viscous friction.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Abrupt Change of Josephson Plasma Frequency at the Phase Boundary of the Bragg Glass in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}
We report the first detailed and quantitative study of the Josephson coupling
energy in the vortex liquid, Bragg glass and vortex glass phases of
Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta} by the Josephson plasma resonance. The measurements
revealed distinct features in the T- and H-dependencies of the plasma frequency
for each of these three vortex phases. When going across either
the Bragg-to-vortex glass or the Bragg-to-liquid transition line,
shows a dramatic change. We provide a quantitative discussion on the properties
of these phase transitions, including the first order nature of the
Bragg-to-vortex glass transition.Comment: 5pages, 4figure
Thermal Suppression of Strong Pinning
We study vortex pinning in layered type-II superconductors in the presence of
uncorrelated disorder for decoupled layers. Introducing the new concept of
variable-range thermal smoothing, we describe the interplay between strong
pinning and thermal fluctuations. We discuss the appearance and analyze the
evolution in temperature of two distinct non-linear features in the
current-voltage characteristics. We show how the combination of layering and
electromagnetic interactions leads to a sharp jump in the critical current for
the onset of glassy response as a function of temperature.Comment: LaTeX 2.09, 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Field Dependence of the Josephson Plasma Resonance in Layered Superconductors with Alternating Junctions
The Josephson plasma resonance in layered superconductors with alternating
critical current densities is investigated in a low perpendicular magnetic
field. In the vortex solid phase the current densities and the squared bare
plasma frequencies decrease linearly with the magnetic field. Taking into
account the coupling due to charge fluctuations on the layers, we extract from
recent optical data for SmLa_{1-x} Sr_x CuO_{4-delta} the Josephson penetration
length lambda_{ab} approximately 1100 A parallel to the layers at T=10 K.Comment: 5 pages, 6 eps-figures, final version with minor misprints correcte
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