Dynamic structure selection and instabilities of driven Josephson lattice in high-temperature superconductors

We investigate the dynamics of the Josephson vortex lattice in layered high-T$_{c}$ superconductors at high magnetic fields. Starting from coupled equations for superconducting phases and magnetic field we derive equations for the relative displacements [phase shifts] between the planar Josephson arrays in the layers. These equations reveal two families of steady-state solutions: lattices with constant phase shifts between neighboring layers, starting from zero for a rectangular configuration to $\pi$ for a triangular configuration, and double-periodic lattices. We find that the excess Josephson current is resonantly enhanced when the Josephson frequency matches the frequency of the plasma mode at the wave vector selected by the lattice structure. The regular lattices exhibit several kinds of instabilities. We find stability regions of the moving lattice in the plane lattice structure - Josephson frequency. A specific lattice structure at given velocity is selected uniquely by boundary conditions, which are determined by the reflection properties of electromagnetic waves generated by the moving lattice. With increase of velocity the moving configuration experiences several qualitative transformations. At small velocities the regular lattice is stable and the phase shift between neighboring layers smoothly decreases with increase of velocity, starting from $\pi$ for a static lattice. At the critical velocity the lattice becomes unstable. At even higher velocity a regular lattice is restored again with the phase shift smaller than $\pi/2$. With increase of velocity, the structure evolves towards a rectangular configuration.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Stability of Driven Josephson Vortex Lattice in Layered Superconductors Revisited

We analytically study stability of sliding lattice of Josephson vortices driven by a transport current in the stack direction in strong in-plane magnetic field. In contrast to recent findings we obtain that there are no diverse configurations of stable vortex lattices, and, hence, the stable sliding vortex lattice can not be selected by boundary conditions. We find that only the triangular (rhombic) lattice can be stable, its stability being limited by a critical velocity value. At higher velocities there are no simple stable lattices with single flux line per unit cell. Oblique sliding lattices are found to be never stable. Instability of such lattices is revealed beyond the linear approximation in perturbations of the lattice.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX 4, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Potential and current distribution in strongly anisotropic Bi(2)Sr(2) CaCu(2)O(8) single crystals at current breakdown

Experiments on potential differences in the low-temperature vortex solid phase of monocrystalline platelets of superconducting Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8) (BSCCO) subjected to currents driven either through an "ab" surface or from one such surface to another show evidence of a resistive/nonresistive front moving progressively out from the current contacts as the current increases. The depth of the resistive region has been measured by a novel in-depth voltage probe contact. The position of the front associated with an injection point appears to depend only on the current magnitude and not on its withdrawal point. It is argued that enhanced nonresistive superconducting anisotropy limits current penetration to less than the London length and results in a flat rectangular resistive region with simultaneous "ab" and "c" current breakdown which moves progressively out from the injection point with increasing current. Measurements in "ab" or "c" configurations are seen to give the same information, involving both ab-plane and c-axis conduction properties.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, typo error corrected, last section was refine

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.

Optical Properties of Layered Superconductors near the Josephson Plasma Resonance

We study the optical properties of crystals with spatial dispersion and show that the usual Fresnel approach becomes invalid near frequencies where the group velocity of the wave packets inside the crystal vanishes. Near these special frequencies the reflectivity depends on the atomic structure of the crystal provided that disorder and dissipation are very low. This is demonstrated explicitly by a detailed study of layered superconductors with identical or two different alternating junctions in the frequency range near the Josephson plasma resonance. Accounting for both inductive and charge coupling of the intrinsic junctions, we show that multiple modes are excited inside the crystal by the incident light, determine their relative amplitude by the microscopic calculation of the additional boundary conditions and finally obtain the reflectivity. Spatial dispersion also provides a novel method to stop light pulses, which has possible applications for quantum information processing and the artificial creation of event horizons in a solid.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Experimental evidence of interlayer coherent tunneling in NbSe3_3

Zero bias conductance peak (ZBCP) and gap features have been studied on tunneling interlayer spectra of the micron-sized NbSe$_3$ stacks of high quality. We show that temperature dependence and the shape of the ZBCP is self-consistently described by Bulaevskii theory of coherent interlayer tunneling of pocket carriers