Structural Transition Kinetics and Activated Behavior in the Superconducting Vortex Lattice

Abstract

Using small-angle neutron scattering, we investigated the behavior of a metastable vortex lattice state in MgB2 as it is driven towards equilibrium by an AC magnetic field. This shows an activated behavior, where the AC field amplitude and cycle count are equivalent to, respectively, an effective "temperature" and "time". The activation barrier increases as the metastable state is suppressed, corresponding to an aging of the vortex lattice. Furthermore, we find a cross-over from a partial to a complete suppression of metastable domains depending on the AC field amplitude, which may empirically be described by a single free parameter. This represents a novel kind of collective vortex behavior, most likely governed by the nucleation and growth of equilibrium vortex lattice domains.

5 pages plus 3 pages of supplemental material

References in corpus (6)

• Ginzburg-Landau theory of vortices in a multi-gap superconductor
• Electric field-induced Skyrmion distortion and giant lattice rotation in the magnetoelectric insulator Cu2OSeO3
• Reorientations, relaxations, metastabilities and multidomains of skyrmion lattices
• Metastable Vortex Lattice Phases in Superconducting MgB2
• Interactions between Coherent Twin Boundaries and Phase Transition of Iron under Dynamic Loading and Unloading
• Observation of domain wall motion in a polycrystalline vortex lattice

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Non-equilibrium structural phase transitions of the vortex lattice in MgB2
• Structural studies of metastable and equilibrium vortex lattice domains in MgB2