Metastability and Glassy Behavior of a Driven Flux-Line Lattice

Abstract

Strong metastability and history dependence are observed in DC and pulsed transport studies of flux-line lattices in 2H-$NbS{e}_2$, leading to the identification of two distinct states of the lattice with different spatial ordering. The metastability is most pronounced upon crossing a transition line marked by a large jump in the critical current (the peak effect). Current induced annealing of the metastable state towards the stable state is observed with a strongly current dependent annealing time, which diverges as a threshold current is approached from above.

4 Pages, ReVTeX, epsf, 4 postscript figures, Some minor revisions from original, Accepted by PRL