Vortex lock-in transition coinciding with the 3D to 2D crossover in YBa2Cu3O7

Abstract

A vortex lock-in transition was directly detected by torque magnetometry in an overdoped YBa2Cu3O7 single crystal of low anisotropy (\approx 7). The locked-in state was observed below the 3D to 2D crossover temperature Tcr = 76 K, independently of extrinsic pinning effects thanks to a high quality clean crystal and the use of a vortex shaking technique. The shape of the torque signal as a function of the angle between the applied magnetic field and the crystallographic c-axis is in very good agreement with the model developped by Feinberg and Ettouhami [Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 7, 2085 (1993)] for quasi-2D superconductors, despite the low anisotropy of the material.

arXiv comment5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Experimental evidence for fast cluster formation of chain oxygen vacancies in YBa2Cu3O7-d being at the origin of the fishtail anomaly
• Irreversible magnetization under rotating fields and lock-in effect on ErBa_2Cu_3O_7 single crystal with columnar defects
• Anisotropy of the superconducting state parameters and intrinsic pinning in low-level Pr-doped YBa2Cu3O(7-delta) single crystals
• Magnetic torque study of the temperature dependent anisotropy parameter in overdoped superconducting single-crystal YBa_2Cu_3O_7