Two Phase Collective Modes in Josephson Vortex Lattice in Intrinsic Josephson Junction Bi2_2Sr2_2CaCu2_2O8+δ_{8+\delta}

Josephson plasma excitations in the high $T_c$ superconductor Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ have been investigated in a wide microwave frequency region (9.8 -- 75 GHz), in particular, in magnetic field applied parallel to the $ab$ plane of the single crystal. In sharp contrast to the case for magnetic fields parallel to the c axis or tilted from the $ab$ plane, it was found that there are two kinds of resonance modes, which are split in energy and possess two distinctly different magnetic field dependences. One always lies higher in energy than the other and has a shallow minimum at about 0.8 kOe, then increases linearly with magnetic field. On the other hand, another mode begins to appear only in a magnetic field (from a few kOe and higher) and has a weakly decreasing tendency with increasing magnetic field. By comparing with a recent theoretical model the higher energy mode can naturally be attributed to the Josephson plasma resonance mode propagating along the primitive reciprocal lattice vector of the Josephson vortex lattice, whereas the lower frequency mode is assigned to the novel phase collective mode of the Josephson vortex lattice, which has never been observed before.Comment: 11 pages and 10 figure

Josephson Plasma Resonance in Solid and Glass Phases of Bi2_2Sr2_2CaCu2_2O8+δ_{8+\delta}

Vortex matter phases and phase transitions are investigated by means of Josephson plasma resonance in under-doped Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+\delta}$ single crystals in a microwave frequency range between 19 and 70 GHz. Accompanied by the vortex lattice melting transition, a jump of the interlayer phase coherence extracted from the field dependence of the plasma frequency was observed. In the solid phase, the interlayer coherence little depends on field at a temperature region well below $T_c$ while it gradually decreases as field increases toward the melting line up to just below $T_c$. As a result, the magnitude of the jump decreases with increasing temperature and is gradually lost in the vicinity of $T_c$. This indicates that the vortex lines formed in the vortex solid phase are thermally meandering and the phase transition becomes weak especially just below $T_c$.Comment: 5pages and 4 figures. Submitted to Physica C (Proceedings of Plasma2000, Sendai

Fluctuating pancake vortices revealed by dissipation of Josephson vortex lattice

In strongly anisotropic layered superconductors in tilted magnetic fields the Josephson vortex lattice coexists with the lattice of pancake vortices. Due to the interaction between them, the dissipation of the Josephson-vortex lattice occurs to be very sensitive to the presence of the pancake vortices. If the c-axis magnetic field is smaller then the corresponding lower critical field, the pancake stacks are not formed but the individual pancakes may exist in the fluctuational regime either near surface in large-size samples or in the central region for small-size mesas. We calculate the contribution of such fluctuating pancake vortices to the c-axis conductivity of the Josephson vortex lattice and compare the theoretical results with measurements on small mesas fabricated out of Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+\delta}$ crystals. A fingerprint of fluctuating pancakes is characteristic exponential dependence of the c-axis conductivity observed experimentally. Our results provide strong evidence of the existence of the fluctuating pancakes and their influence on the Josephson-vortex-lattice dissipation.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, Subm. Phys. Rev.

Superconducting Plasma Excitation at Microwave Frequencies in Parallel Magnetic Fields in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ\mathrm{\mathbf{Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta}}}

Josephson plasma resonance has been studied in a wide microwave frequency range between 10 and 52 GHz in a magnetic field parallel to the $ab$-plane in under-doped \BI. Above about 30 GHz two resonance modes were observed: one (LT mode) appears at low temperatures and another (HT mode) at higher temperatures, leaving a temperature gap between two regions. These two resonance modes exhibit a sharp contrast each other both on temperture and magnetic field dependences and show distinct characters different entirely from the c-axis Josephson plasma resonance. From temperature and field scan experiments at various frequencies it is suggested that the LT mode can be attributed to the coupled Josephson plasma mode with Josephson vortices, while the HT mode is a new plasma mode associated possibly with the periodic array of Josephson vortices.Comment: submitted to Physica C (Prceedings of Plasma2000, Sendai