How the vortex lattice of a superconductor becomes disordered: a study by scanning tunneling spectroscopy

Abstract

Order-disorder transitions take place in many physical systems, but observing them in detail in real materials is difficult. In two- or quasi-two-dimensional systems, the transition has been studied by computer simulations and experimentally in electron sheets, dusty plasmas, colloidal and other systems. Here I show the different stages of defect formation in the vortex lattice of a superconductor while it undergoes an order-disorder transition by presenting real-space images of the lattice from scanning tunneling spectroscopy. When the system evolves from the ordered to the disordered state, the predominant kind of defect changes from dislocation pairs to single dislocations, and finally to defect clusters forming grain boundaries. Correlation functions indicate a hexatic-like state preceding the disordered state. The transition in the microscopic vortex distribution is mirrored by the well-known spectacular second peak effect observed in the macroscopic current density of the superconductor.

References in corpus (22)

• The Flux-Line Lattice in Superconductors
• Scanning tunneling spectroscopy of high-temperature superconductors
• Elastic theory of flux lattices in presence of weak disorder
• Two-step melting in two dimensions: First-order liquid-hexatic transition
• Dynamic instabilities and memory effects in vortex matter
• A Bragg glass phase in the vortex lattice of a type II superconductor
• Direct observation of melting in a 2-D superconducting vortex lattice
• Peak effect, vortex-lattice melting-line and order - disorder transition in conventional and high-T superconductors
• Scanning Tunneling Microscopy/Spectroscopy of Vortices in LiFeAs
• Imaging superconducting vortex core and lattice with the scanning tunneling microscope
• Two-dimensional melting under quenched disorder
• Dislocations and the critical endpoint of the melting line of vortex line lattices
• Enhancement of long range correlations in a 2D vortex lattice by incommensurate 1D disorder potential
• Tearing transition and plastic flow in superconducting thin films
• Effect of pinning on the vortex-lattice melting line in type-II superconductors
• Experimental evidence for a two-band superconducting state of NbSe2 single crystals
• Two-step melting of the vortex solid in layered superconductors with random columnar pins
• Structure of Flux Line Lattices with Weak Disorder at Large Length Scales
• Irreversible flow of vortex matter: polycrystal and amorphous phases
• Simulation of the current dynamics in superconductors: Application to magnetometry measurements
• Domain regime in two-dimensional disordered vortex matter
• Grain boundaries in vortex matter

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Filming the formation and fluctuation of Skyrmion domains by cryo-Lorentz Transmission Electron Microscopy
• Composite Topological Excitations in Ferromagnet-Superconductor Heterostructures
• Universal Lower Limit on Vortex Creep in Superconductors
• Melting of the vortex lattice through intermediate hexatic fluid in a-MoGe thin film
• Unveiling the vortex glass phase in the surface and volume of a type-II superconductor
• Disorder-induced two-step melting of vortex matter in Co-intercalated NbSe${}_2$ single crystals
• Measuring the disorder of vortex lattices in a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Anisotropic suppression of hyperuniformity of elastic systems in media with planar disorder
• Metastability and hysteretic vortex pinning near the order-disorder transition in NbSe${}_2$: An interplay between plastic and elastic energy barriers?
• Thermal melting of a vortex lattice in a quasi two-dimensional Bose gas
• Structure and dynamics of a pinned vortex liquid in superconducting a-Re_xZr (x ~ 6) thin film
• Vortex dynamics and second magnetization peak in the iron-pnictide superconductor Ca${}_{0.82}$La${}_{0.18}$Fe${}_{0.96}$Ni${}_{0.04}$As${}_2$
• Tunable vortex bound states in multiband CsV3Sb5-derived kagome superconductors
• Use of a sigmoid function to describe second peak in magnetization loops
• Quasi Long Range Order and Vortex Lattice in the Three State Potts Model
• Second magnetization peak, anomalous field penetration, and Josephson vortices in KCa${}_2$Fe${}_4$As${}_4$F${}_2$ bilayer pnictide superconductor
• Inverse melting and re-entrant transformations of the vortex lattice in amorphous Re6Zr thin film
• Order-disorder phase transition and elastic-to-plastic vortex creep crossover in a triclinic iron pnictide superconductor (Ca0.85La0.15)10(Pt3As8)(Fe2As2)5
• Anti-hyperuniform diluted vortex matter induced by correlated disorder