16 research outputs found
Low-lying excitations around a single vortex in a d-wave superconductor
A full quantum-mechanical treatment of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation for
a single vortex in a d-wave superconductor is presented. First, we find
low-energy states extended in four diagonal directions, which have no
counterpart in a vortex of s-wave superconductors. The four-fold symmetry is
due to 'quantum effect', which is enhanced when is small. Second,
for , a peak with a large energy gap is
found in the density of states, which is due to the formation of the lowest
bound states.Comment: 7pages, Revte
Steps in the Negative-Differential-Conductivity Regime of a Superconductor
Current-voltage characteristics were measured in the mixed state of
Y1Ba2Cu3O(7-delta) superconducting films in the regime where flux flow becomes
unstable and the differential conductivity dj/dE becomes negative. Under
conditions where its negative slope is steep, the j(E) curve develops a
pronounced staircase like pattern. We attribute the steps in j(E) to the
formation of a dynamical phase consisting of the succesive nucleation of
quantized distortions in the local vortex velocity and flux distribution within
the moving flux matter.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Thermal Conductivity of the Spin Peierls Compound CuGeO_3
The thermal conductivity of the Spin-Peierls (SP) compound CuGeO_3 was
measured in magnetic fields up to 16 T. Above the SP transition, the heat
transport due to spin excitations causes a peak at around 22 K, while below the
transition the spin excitations rapidly diminish and the heat transport is
dominated by phonons; however, the main scattering process of the phonons is
with spin excitations, which demonstrates itself in an unusual peak in the
thermal conductivity at about 5.5 K. This low-temperature peak is strongly
suppressed with magnetic fields in excess of 12.5 T.Comment: 6 pages, including 2 postscript figure
Non-equilibrium Superconductivity and Quasiparticle Dynamics studied by Photo Induced Activation of Mm-Wave Absorption (PIAMA)
We present a study of non-equilibrium superconductivity in DyBa2Cu3O7-d using
photo induced activation of mm-wave absorption (PIAMA). We monitor the time
evolution of the thin film transmissivity at 5 cm-1 subject to pulsed infrared
radiation. In addition to a positive bolometric signal we observe a second,
faster, decay with a sign opposite to the bolometric signal for T>40 K. We
attribute this to the unusual properties of quasi-particles residing near the
nodes of an unconventional superconductor, resulting in a strong enhancement of
the recombination time.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letter
Impurity Effect on Kramer-Pesch Core Shrinkage in s-Wave Vortex and Chiral p-Wave Vortex
The low-temperature shrinking of the vortex core (Kramer-Pesch effect) is
studied for an isolated single vortex for chiral p-wave and s-wave
superconducting phases. The effect of nonmagnetic impurities on the vortex core
radius is numerically investigated in the Born limit by means of a
quasiclassical approach. It is shown that in the chiral p-wave phase the
Kramer-Pesch effect displays a certain robustness against impurities owing to a
specific quantum effect, while the s-wave phase reacts more sensitively to
impurity scattering. This suggests chiral p-wave superconductors as promising
candidates for the experimental observation of the Kramer-Pesch effect.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; to be published in J. Low Temp. Phys.; Proc. of
NATO ARW: VORTEX 2004, Yalta (Uknaine
The Flux-Line Lattice in Superconductors
Magnetic flux can penetrate a type-II superconductor in form of Abrikosov
vortices. These tend to arrange in a triangular flux-line lattice (FLL) which
is more or less perturbed by material inhomogeneities that pin the flux lines,
and in high- supercon- ductors (HTSC's) also by thermal fluctuations. Many
properties of the FLL are well described by the phenomenological
Ginzburg-Landau theory or by the electromagnetic London theory, which treats
the vortex core as a singularity. In Nb alloys and HTSC's the FLL is very soft
mainly because of the large magnetic penetration depth: The shear modulus of
the FLL is thus small and the tilt modulus is dispersive and becomes very small
for short distortion wavelength. This softness of the FLL is enhanced further
by the pronounced anisotropy and layered structure of HTSC's, which strongly
increases the penetration depth for currents along the c-axis of these uniaxial
crystals and may even cause a decoupling of two-dimensional vortex lattices in
the Cu-O layers. Thermal fluctuations and softening may melt the FLL and cause
thermally activated depinning of the flux lines or of the 2D pancake vortices
in the layers. Various phase transitions are predicted for the FLL in layered
HTSC's. The linear and nonlinear magnetic response of HTSC's gives rise to
interesting effects which strongly depend on the geometry of the experiment.Comment: Review paper for Rep.Prog.Phys., 124 narrow pages. The 30 figures do
not exist as postscript file
Pinning effects on the vortex critical velocity in type-II superconducting thin films
We study the influence of artificial pinning centers on the vortex critical velocity in Al thin films deposited on top of a periodic array of Permalloy (FeNi) square rings. We demonstrate that the field dependence of the flux flow velocity strongly depends on the particular magnetic state of the rings. In particular, we find that, even when the rings are in a flux closure state, i.e. with little stray field, the vortex critical velocity shows a non-monotonic magnetic field dependence. This behaviour is in sharp contrast with the results obtained in a reference plain film, with no rings underneath. A comparison with the intrinsic strong pinning Nb films previously studied, suggests an interpretation in terms of a channel-like motion of vortices, here induced by the artificial pinning structure. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved