Magnetic-force-microscope study of interlayer "kinks" in individual vortices in underdoped cuprate YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{6+x}$ superconductor

Abstract

We use magnetic force microscopy to both image and manipulate individual vortex lines threading single crystalline YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{6.4}$, a layered superconductor. We find that when we pull the top of a pinned vortex, it may not tilt smoothly. Sometimes, we observe a vortex to break into discrete segments that can be described as short stacks of pancake vortices, similar to the "kinked" structure proposed by Benkraouda and Clem. Quantitative analysis gives an estimate of the pinning force and the coupling between the stacks. Our measurements highlight the discrete nature of stacks of pancake vortices in layered superconductors.

References in corpus (7)

• Mechanics of Individual, Isolated Vortices in a Cuprate Superconductor
• Superfluid Density in a Highly Underdoped YBCO Superconductor
• Controlled Manipulation of Individual Vortices in a Superconductor
• Survival of the d-wave superconducting state near the edge of antiferromagnetism in the cuprate phase diagram
• Two-dimensional vortex behavior in highly underdoped YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} observed by scanning Hall probe microscopy
• Do Vortices Entangle?
• Pancake vortices

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Crossover between integer and fractional vortex lattices in coherently coupled two-component Bose-Einstein condensates
• Perspective: Challenges and Transformative Opportunities in Superconductor Vortex Physics
• Observation of superconducting vortices carrying a temperature-dependent fraction of the flux quantum
• Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition of two-component Bose mixtures with inter-component Josephson coupling
• Braiding Majorana Fermions and Creating Quantum Logic Gates with Vortices on a Periodic Pinning Structure
• Vortex graphs as N-omers and CP(N-1) Skyrmions in N-component Bose-Einstein condensates
• Single Vortex Pinning and Penetration Depth in Superconducting NdFeAsO${}_{1-x}$F${}_x$
• Individual Vortex Manipulation and Stick-Slip Motion in Periodic Pinning Arrays
• Construction of a ${}^3$He magnetic force microscope with a vector magnet
• Attractive interaction between superconducting vortices in tilted magnetic fields
• Massless and quantized modes of kinks in the phase space of superconducting gaps
• Fluxon Dynamics of a Long Josephson Junction with Two-gap Superconductors
• Fractional and Integer Vortex Dynamics in Strongly Coupled Two-component Bose-Einstein Condensates from AdS/CFT Correspondence
• Colloidal Lattice Shearing and Rupturing with a Driven Line of Particles
• Stabilizing semilocal strings by polarization
• Superconductors that do not expel magnetic flux