Experimental realization of smectic phase in vortex matter induced by symmetric potentials arranged in two-fold symmetry arrays

Abstract

Smectic order has been generated in superconducting Nb films with two-fold symmetry arrays of symmetric pinning centers. Magnetic fields applied perpendicularly to the films develop a vortex matter smectic phase that is easily detected when the vortices commensurate with the pinning center array. The smectic phase can be turned on and off with external parameters.

15 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (7)

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• Anisotropic in-plane resistivity in the nematic phase of the iron pnictides
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Jamming, Fragility and Pinning Phenomena in Superconducting Vortex Systems
• Different approaches to generate matching effects using arrays in contact with superconducting films
• Enhancement of vortex liquid phase and reentrant behavior in NiBi3 single crystals
• Driven Superconducting Vortex Dynamics in Systems with Two-Fold Anisotropy in the Presence of Pinning