Inverse melting of the vortex lattice

Abstract

Inverse melting, in which a crystal reversibly transforms into a liquid or amorphous phase upon decreasing the temperature, is considered to be very rare in nature. The search for such an unusual equilibrium phenomenon is often hampered by the formation of nonequilibrium states which conceal the thermodynamic phase transition, or by intermediate phases, as was recently shown in a polymeric system. Here we report a first-order inverse melting of the magnetic flux line lattice in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 superconductor. At low temperatures, the material disorder causes significant pinning of the vortices, which prevents observation of their equilibrium properties. Using a newly introduced 'vortex dithering' technique we were able to equilibrate the vortex lattice. As a result, direct thermodynamic evidence of inverse melting transition is found, at which a disordered vortex phase transforms into an ordered lattice with increasing temperature. Paradoxically, the structurally ordered lattice has larger entropy than the disordered phase. This finding shows that the destruction of the ordered vortex lattice occurs along a unified first-order transition line that gradually changes its character from thermally-induced melting at high temperatures to a disorder-induced transition at low temperatures.

13 pages, 4 figures, Nature, In press

References in corpus (2)

• Effects of point defects on the phase diagram of vortex states in high-Tc superconductors in B//c axis
• Disorder Driven Melting of the Vortex Line Lattice

Cited by in corpus (90)

• Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov State in Heavy Fermion Superconductors
• Statics and Dynamics of Skyrmions Interacting with Pinning: A Review
• The Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Type II superconductors in magnetic field
• Mechanics of Individual, Isolated Vortices in a Cuprate Superconductor
• Peak effect, vortex-lattice melting-line and order - disorder transition in conventional and high-T superconductors
• Why an ac magnetic field shifts the irreversibility line in type-II superconductors
• Inverse melting and inverse freezing: a spin model
• Temperature and time scaling of the peak-effect vortex configuration in FeTe${}_{0.7}$Se${}_{0.3}$
• Equilibrium First-Order Melting and Second-Order Glass Transitions of the Vortex Matter in Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_8$
• Melting of 'porous' vortex matter
• Quasi-long range order in glass states of impure liquid crystals, magnets, and superconductors
• Microwave resonances of magnetic skyrmions in thin film multilayers
• Spin Model for Inverse Melting and Inverse Glass Transition
• Effect of pinning on the vortex-lattice melting line in type-II superconductors
• Tearing transition and plastic flow in superconducting thin films
• Thermodynamic origin of the peak effect in the superconductor Nb3Sn
• Disorder Driven Melting of the Vortex Line Lattice
• Disorder-induced Phase Transition of Vortex Matter in MgB2
• Simplest model to study reentrance in physical systems
• Mott insulator phases and first-order melting in BSCCO crystals with periodic surface holes
• Theory of the vortex matter transformations in high Tc superconductor YBCO
• Unified order-disorder vortex phase transition in high-Tc superconductors
• Hyperuniform vortex patterns at the surface of type-II superconductors
• Vortex Chains in Anisotropic Superconductors
• Thermal fluctuations and vortex melting in the classical superconductor Nb3Sn from high-resolution specific-heat measurements
• Thermodynamic first order transition and inverse freezing in a 3D spin-glass
• V-I characteristics in the vicinity of order-disorder transition in vortex matter
• Interplay of Anisotropy and Disorder in the Doping-Dependent Melting and Glass Transitions of Vortices in Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+\delta }$
• Vortex fluctuations in underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d crystals
• Disorder and thermally driven vortex-lattice melting in La{2-x}Sr{x}CuO{4} crystals
• Metastability and Transient Effects in Vortex Matter Near a Decoupling Transition
• Dynamic Creation and Annihilation of Metastable Vortex Phase as a Source of Excess Noise
• The random Blume-Capel model on cubic lattice: first order inverse freezing in a 3D spin-glass system
• Disorder Effect on the Vortex Pinning by the Cooling Process Control in the Organic Superconductor $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)${}_2$Cu[N(CN)${}_2$]Br
• Unveiling the vortex glass phase in the surface and volume of a type-II superconductor
• Hysteretic behavior of the vortex lattice at the onset of the second peak for HgBa${}_2$CuO${}_{4+\delta }$ superconductor
• Extreme sensitivity of the vortex state in a-MoGe films to radio-frequency electromagnetic perturbation
• Dynamics of transient disordered vortex states in BSCCO
• Strong 3D correlations in vortex system of Bi2212:Pb
• Flux jumps, Second Magnetization Peak anomaly and the Peak Effect phenomenon in single crystals of $YN{i}_2{B}_{2}C$ and $LuN{i}_2{B}_{2}C$
• The universal high temperature regime of pinned elastic objects
• Role of the transverse field in inverse freezing in the fermionic Ising spin-glass model
• Thermodynamic Observation of a Vortex Melting Transition in the Fe-based Superconductor Ba0.5K0.5Fe2As2
• Persistence of the first-order transition lines in mesoscopic Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_8$ vortex matter with less than hundred vortices
• Size-induced depression of first-order transition lines and entropy-jump in extremely-layered nanocrystalline vortex matter
• Grain boundaries in vortex matter
• Critical Currents and Order-Disorder Phase Transition in the Vortex States of YBa2Cu4O8 with Chemically Introduced Disorder
• Latent-heat and non-linear vortex liquid at the vicinity of the first-order phase transition in layered high-Tc superconductors
• Inverse freezing in the Ghatak-Sherrington model with a random field
• Growth of a vortex polycrystal in type II superconductors
• A Quantum-Classical Model of Brain Dynamics
• Attractive interaction between superconducting vortices in tilted magnetic fields
• Peak effect at the weak- to strong pinning crossover
• Suppression of geometrical barrier in $B{i}_{2}S{r}_{2}CaC{u}_2{O}_{8+\delta }$ crystals by Josephson vortex stacks
• Inverse freezing in the Hopfield Fermionic Ising Spin Glass
• Inverse melting in a two-dimensional off-lattice model
• Vortex Phase Diagram of weakly pinned YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ for H $\parallel$ c
• Topological Concepts in Gauge Theories
• Dual role of an ac driving force and the underlying two distinct order-disorder transitions in the vortex phase diagram of Ca3Ir4Sn13
• "Fragile superconductivity": a kinetic glass transition in the vortex matter of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-d
• Anomalous Paramagnetic Magnetization in Mixed State of CeCoIn${}_5$ single crystals
• First-order disorder-driven transition and inverse melting of the vortex lattice
• Application of a small oscillating magnetic field to reveal the peak effect in the resistivity of Nb3Sn
• Superconducting Vortices induced Periodic Magnetoresistance Oscillations in Single Crystal Au Nanowires
• Defect induced melting of vortices in high-${\mathbf{T}}_{\mathbf{c}}$ superconductors: A model based on continuum elasticity theory
• An ac field probe for the magnetic ordering of magnets with random anisotropy
• Multiple Changes of Order of the Vortex Melting Transition in BSCCO with Dilute Columnar Defects
• Inverse Transitions in the Ghatak-Sherrington model with Bimodal Random Fields
• Visualizing a dilute vortex liquid to solid phase transition in a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystal
• Unified Phase Diagram for the Three-Dimensional XY Model of a Point Disordered Type-II Superconductor
• Phase Diagram of Vortices in High-Tc Superconductors from Lattice Defect Model with Pinning
• Decoupling and Depinning II: Flux lattices in disordered layered superconductors
• Anisotropic flux creep in Bi2212:Pb single crystal in crossed magnetic fields
• Vortex phase diagram in BSCCO with damage tracks created by 30 MeV fullerene irradiation
• Decoupling Transition I. Flux Lattices in Pure Layered Superconductors
• On voltage-current characteristics and critical current in Bi-2212
• Planar pinning induced, lowering of vortex dimensionality and low field melting in a single crystal of Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2
• Inverse melting and re-entrant transformations of the vortex lattice in amorphous Re6Zr thin film
• Inverse transitions in a spin-glass model on a scale-free network
• Inverse Melting of Polar Order in Chemically Substituted BaTiO3
• Inverse transitions and disappearance of the λ-line in the asymmetric random field Ising and Blume-Capel models
• Doping Dependence of Vortex Regimes in Y${}_{1-x}$Pr${}_x$Ba${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ Single Crystals
• Phase Diagram of Vortices in High-T_c Superconductors with a Melting Line in the deep H_{c2} Region
• Three Magnetization Peaks in HgBa${}_2$Ca${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_8$ Single Crystals
• The Debye Length and the Running Coupling of QCD: a Potential and Phenomenological Approach
• Spin-glass splitting in the quantum Ghatak-Sherrington model
• Second ac screening step as a probe for the first-order melting transition in layered vortex matter at intermediate temperatures
• Inverse Melting of an Electronic Liquid Crystal
• Spin-1 Hopfield model under a random field
• Bridge in micron-sized Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+y sample act as converging lens for vortices