122 research outputs found
Temperature variations of the disorder-induced vortex-lattice melting landscape
Differential magneto-optical imaging of the vortex-lattice melting process in
Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8 crystals reveals unexpected effects of quenched disorder on
the broadening of the first-order phase transition. The melting patterns show
that the disorder-induced melting landscape T_m(H,r) is not fixed, but rather
changes dramatically with varying field and temperature along the melting line.
The changes in both the scale and shape of the landscape are found to result
from the competing contributions of different types of quenched disorder which
have opposite effects on the local melting transition.Comment: 4 pages of text and 3 figures. Accepted for Publication in Physical
Review Letter
Dynamic Creation and Annihilation of Metastable Vortex Phase as a Source of Excess Noise
The large increase in voltage noise, commonly observed in the vicinity of the
peak-effect in superconductors, is ascribed to a novel noise mechanism. A
strongly pinned metastable disordered vortex phase, which is randomly generated
at the edges and annealed into ordered phase in the bulk, causes large
fluctuations in the integrated critical current of the sample. The excess noise
due to this dynamic admixture of two distinct phases is found to display
pronounced reentrant behavior. In the Corbino geometry the injection of the
metastable phase is prevented and, accordingly, the excess noise disappearsComment: 5 pages 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Europhysics letter
The effect of uniaxial pressure on the magnetic anisotropy of the Mn_{12}-Ac single-molecule magnet
We study the effect of uniaxial pressure on the magnetic hysteresis loops of
the single-molecule magnet Mn_{12}-Ac. We find that the application of pressure
along the easy axis increases the fields at which quantum tunneling of
magnetization occurs. The observations are attributed to an increase in the
molecule's magnetic anisotropy constant D of 0.142(1)%/kbar. The increase in D
produces a small, but measurable increase in the effective energy barrier for
magnetization reversal. Density-functional theory calculations also predict an
increase in the barrier with applied pressure.Comment: version accepted by EPL; 6 pages, including 7 figures. Small changes
and added reference
Suppression of geometrical barrier in crystals by Josephson vortex stacks
Differential magneto-optics are used to study the effect of dc in-plane
magnetic field on hysteretic behavior due to geometrical barriers in
crystals. In absence of in-plane field a vortex
dome is visualized in the sample center surrounded by barrier-dominated
flux-free regions. With in-plane field, stacks of Josephson vortices form
vortex chains which are surprisingly found to protrude out of the dome into the
vortex-free regions. The chains are imaged to extend up to the sample edges,
thus providing easy channels for vortex entry and for drain of the dome through
geometrical barrier, suppressing the magnetic hysteresis. Reduction of the
vortex energy due to crossing with Josephson vortices is evaluated to be about
two orders of magnitude too small to account for the formation of the
protruding chains. We present a model and numerical calculations that
qualitatively describe the observed phenomena by taking into account the
demagnetization effects in which flux expulsion from the pristine regions
results in vortex focusing and in the chain protrusion. Comparative
measurements on a sample with narrow etched grooves provide further support to
the proposed model.Comment: 12 figures (low res.) Higher resolution figures are available at the
Phys Rev B version. Typos correcte
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