Journal article
Decomposing the Bragg glass and the peak effect in a Type-II superconductor
Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark1
Neutrons and X-rays for Materials Physics, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark2
Department of Wind Energy, Technical University of Denmark3
Wind Turbine Structures and Component Design, Department of Wind Energy, Technical University of Denmark4
University of Fribourg5
Institut Laue-Langevin6
University of Birmingham7
Adding impurities or defects destroys crystalline order. Occasionally, however, extraordinary behaviour emerges that cannot be explained by perturbing the ordered state. One example is the Kondo effect, where magnetic impurities in metals drastically alter the temperature dependence of resistivity. In Type-II superconductors, disorder generally works to pin vortices, giving zero resistivity below a critical current j(c).
However, peaks have been observed in the temperature and field dependences of j(c). This peak effect is difficult to explain in terms of an ordered Abrikosov vortex lattice. Here we test the widespread paradigm that an order-disorder transition of the vortex ensemble drives the peak effect. Using neutron scattering to probe the vortex order in superconducting vanadium, we uncover an order-disorder transition from a quasi-long-range-ordered phase to a vortex glass.
The peak effect, however, is found to lie at higher fields and temperatures, in a region where thermal fluctuations of individual vortices become significant.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group UK |
Year: | 2018 |
Pages: | 901 |
ISSN: | 20411723 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-018-03267-z |
ORCIDs: | Toft-Petersen, Rasmus , Abrahamsen, Asger Bech and 0000-0002-3286-1118 |