Lamellar mesophase nucleated by Josephson vortices at the melting of the vortex lattice in $B{i}_{2}S{r}_{2}CaC{u}_2{O}_{8+delta}$

Abstract

The local effect of the Josephson vortices on the vortex lattice melting process in \BSCCO crystals in the presence of an in-plane field $H_{ab}$ is studied by differential magneto-optical imaging. The melting process is found to commence along the Josephson vortex stacks, forming a mesomorphic phase of periodic liquid and solid lamellas, the direction and spacing of which are controlled by $H_{ab}$. The reduction of the local melting field $H_m$ along the Josephson vortex stacks is more than an order of magnitude larger than the reduction of the average bulk $H_m$ by $H_{ab}$.

5 pages, 3 figures (low res). Higher resolution can be found in the Phys. Rev. Lett. equivalent paper

References in corpus (3)

• Variable range hopping and quantum creep in one dimension
• Mott insulator phases and first-order melting in BSCCO crystals with periodic surface holes
• Suppression of geometrical barrier in $B{i}_{2}S{r}_{2}CaC{u}_2{O}_{8+\delta }$ crystals by Josephson vortex stacks

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Visualizing a dilute vortex liquid to solid phase transition in a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystal
• Pre-melting of crossing vortex lattices