183 research outputs found
Tunneling from a correlated 2D electron system transverse to a magnetic field
We show that, in a magnetic field parallel to the 2D electron layer, strong
electron correlations change the rate of tunneling from the layer
exponentially. It results in a specific density dependence of the escape rate.
The mechanism is a dynamical Mossbauer-type recoil, in which the Hall momentum
of the tunneling electron is partly transferred to the whole electron system,
depending on the interrelation between the rate of interelectron momentum
exchange and the tunneling duration. We also show that, in a certain
temperature range, magnetic field can enhance rather than suppress the
tunneling rate. The effect is due to the magnetic field induced energy exchange
between the in-plane and out-of-plane motion. Magnetic field can also induce
switching between intra-well states from which the system tunnels, and a
transition from tunneling to thermal activation. Explicit results are obtained
for a Wigner crystal. They are in qualitative and quantitative agreement with
the relevant experimental data, with no adjustable parameters.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure
Dissipative Dynamics of a Josephson Junction In the Bose-Gases
The dissipative dynamics of a Josephson junction in the Bose-gases is
considered within the framework of the model of a tunneling Hamiltonian. The
effective action which describes the dynamics of the phase difference across
the junction is derived using functional integration method. The dynamic
equation obtained for the phase difference across the junction is analyzed for
the finite temperatures in the low frequency limit involving the radiation
terms. The asymmetric case of the Bose-gases with the different order
parameters is calculated as well
Elastic-to-plastic crossover below the peak effect in the vortex solid of YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals
We report on transport and ac susceptibility studies below the peak effect in
twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals. We find that disorder generated at the peak
effect can be partially inhibited by forcing vortices to move with an ac
driving current. The vortex system can be additionally ordered below a
well-defined temperature where elastic interactions between vortices overcome
pinning-generated stress and a plastic to elastic crossover seems to occur. The
combined effect of these two processes results in vortex structures with
different mobilities that give place to history effects.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Published in PRB Rapid Comm., February 1, 200
A study of supercooling of the disordered vortex phase via minor hysteresis loops in 2H-NbSe_2
We report on the observation of novel features in the minor hysteresis loops
in a clean crystal of NbSe_2 which displays a peak effect. The observed
behavior can be explained in terms of a supercooling of the disordered vortex
phase while cooling the superconductor in a field. Also, the extent of spatial
order in a flux line lattice formed in ascending fields is different from (and
larger than) that in the descending fields below the peak position of the peak
effect; this is attributed to unequal degree of annealing of the state induced
by a change of field in the two cases.Comment: 5 pages of text + 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Disordered Type-II Superconductors: A Universal Phase Diagram for Low-T Systems
A universal phase diagram for weakly pinned low-T type-II superconductors
is revisited and extended with new proposals. The low-temperature ``Bragg
glass'' phase is argued to transform first into a disordered, glassy phase upon
heating. This glassy phase, a continuation of the high-field equilibrium vortex
glass phase, then melts at higher temperatures into a liquid. This proposal
provides an explanation for the anomalies observed in the peak effect regime of
2H-NbSe and several other low-T materials which is independent of the
microscopic mechanisms of superconductivity in these systems.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure
Josephson currents through spin-active interfaces
The Josephson coupling of two isotropic s-wave superconductors through a
small, magnetically active junction is studied. This is done as a function of
junction transparency and of the degree of spin-mixing occurring in the
barrier. In the tunneling limit, the critical current shows an anomalous 1/T
temperature dependence at low temperatures and for certain magnetic
realizations of the junction. The behavior of the Josephson current is governed
by Andreev bound states appearing within the superconducting gap and the
position of these states in energy is tunable with the magnetic properties of
the barrier. This study is done using the equilibrium part of the
quasiclassical Zaitsev-Millis-Rainer-Sauls boundary condition for spin-active
interfaces and a general solution of the boundary condition is found. This
solution is a generalization of the one recently presented by Eschrig [M.
Eschrig, Phys. Rev B 61, 9061 (2000)] for spin-conserving interfaces and allows
an effective treatment of the problem of a superconductor in proximity to a
magnetically active material.Comment: 8 pages + 3 eps figure
Critical depinning force and vortex lattice order in disordered superconductors
We simulate the ordering of vortices and its effects on the critical current
in superconductors with varied vortex-vortex interaction strength and varied
pinning strengths for a two-dimensional system. For strong pinning the vortex
lattice is always disordered and the critical depinning force only weakly
increases with decreasing vortex-vortex interactions. For weak pinning the
vortex lattice is defect free until the vortex-vortex interactions have been
reduced to a low value, when defects begin to appear with a simultaneous rapid
increase in the critical depinning force. In each case the depinning force
shows a maximum for non-interacting vortices. The relative height of the peak
increases and the peak width decreases for decreasing pinning strength in
excellent agreement with experimental trends associated with the peak effect.
We show that scaling relations exist between the distance between defects in
the vortex lattice and the critical depinning force.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Variable-range hopping in quasi-one-dimensional electron crystals
We study the effect of impurities on the ground state and the low-temperature
dc transport in a 1D chain and quasi-1D systems of many parallel chains. We
assume that strong interactions impose a short-range periodicicity of the
electron positions. The long-range order of such an electron crystal (or
equivalently, a charge-density wave) is destroyed by impurities. The 3D
array of chains behaves differently at large and at small impurity
concentrations . At large , impurities divide the chains into metallic
rods. The low-temperature conductivity is due to the variable-range hopping of
electrons between the rods. It obeys the Efros-Shklovskii (ES) law and
increases exponentially as decreases. When is small, the metallic-rod
picture of the ground state survives only in the form of rare clusters of
atypically short rods. They are the source of low-energy charge excitations. In
the bulk the charge excitations are gapped and the electron crystal is pinned
collectively. A strongly anisotropic screening of the Coulomb potential
produces an unconventional linear in energy Coulomb gap and a new law of the
variable-range hopping . remains
constant over a finite range of impurity concentrations. At smaller the
2/5-law is replaced by the Mott law, where the conductivity gets suppressed as
goes down. Thus, the overall dependence of on is nonmonotonic.
In 1D, the granular-rod picture and the ES apply at all . The conductivity
decreases exponentially with . Our theory provides a qualitative explanation
for the transport in organic charge-density wave compounds.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. (v1) The abstract is abridged to 24 lines. For
the full abstract, see the manuscript (v2) several changes in presentation
per referee's comments. No change in result
Inhomogeneous magnetism induced in a superconductor at superconductor-ferromagnet interface
We study a magnetic proximity effect at superconductor (S) - ferromagnet (F)
interface. It is shown that due to an exchange of electrons between the F and S
metals ferromagnetic correlations extend into the superconductor, being
dependent on interface parameters. We show that ferromagnetic exchange field
pair breaking effect leads to a formation of subgap bands in the S layer local
density of states, that accommodate only one spin-polarized quasiparticles.
Equilibrium magnetization leakage into the S layer as function of SF interface
quality and a value of ferromagnetic interaction have also been calculated. We
show that a damped-oscillatory behavior versus distance from SF interface is a
distinguished feature of the exchange-induced magnetization of the S layer.Comment: 10 pages, 7 Postscript figure
Current-induced highly dissipative domains in high Tc thin films
We have investigated the resistive response of high Tc thin films submitted
to a high density of current. For this purpose, current pulses were applied
into bridges made of Nd(1.15)Ba(1.85)Cu3O7 and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8. By recording the
time dependent voltage, we observe that at a certain critical current j*, a
highly dissipative domain develops somewhere along the bridge. The successive
formation of these domains produces stepped I-V characteristics. We present
evidences that these domains are not regions with a temperature above Tc, as
for hot spots. In fact this phenomenon appears to be analog to the nucleation
of phase-slip centers observed in conventional superconductors near Tc, but
here in contrast they appear in a wide temperature range. Under some
conditions, these domains will propagate and destroy the superconductivity
within the whole sample. We have measured the temperature dependence of j* and
found a similar behavior in the two investigated compounds. This temperature
dependence is just the one expected for the depairing current, but the
amplitude is about 100 times smaller.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Revtex, to appear in Phys. Rev.
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