Superconducting vortices in layered materials

In highly anisotropic superconductors such as BSCCO, the vortex lattice is composed of individual pancake vortices. These pancakes, which interact both magnetically and through Josephson coupling, align under certain conditions into elastic lines resembling those found in isotropic superconductors. Three-dimensional (3D) line-like behavior has been observed in transformer geometry measurements, muon-spin-rotation, and neutron scattering. Under different conditions, however, the pancake vortices in each layer move independently of the other layers, and the system acts like a stack of independent thin film superconductors. Such two-dimensional (2D) behavior has also been seen in transformer experiments. Thus in layered superconductors two different effective dimensionalities of the vortex pancake lattice may appear, each with different characteristic properties. We use simulations of the exact magnetic interactions between pancakes in different layers to study the properties of these systems.

Papers:

1. Do vortices entangle?
   C.J. Olson Reichhardt and M.B. Hastings
   Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 157002 (2004).
   Online version
   Featured in News and Views: D.R. Nelson, Nature 430, 839 (19 August 2004)
   Nature feature link.

2. Metastable and transient effects in vortex matter near a disorder driven transition
   C.J. Olson, C. Reichhardt, R.T. Scalettar, G.T. Zimanyi, and N. Gronbech-Jensen
   Phys. Rev. B 67, 184523 (2003).
   Online version
   

3. Disordering transitions in vortex matter: Peak effect and phase diagram
   C.J. Olson, C. Reichhardt, R.T. Scalettar, G.T. Zimanyi, and N. Gronbech-Jensen
   Physica C 384, 143 (2003).
   Online version
   
4. Hysteretic depinning and dynamical melting for magnetically interacting vortices in disordered layered superconductors
   C.J. Olson, C. Reichhardt, and V.M. Vinokur
   Phys. Rev. B 64, 140502(R) (2001).
   Online version

5. Effects of columnar and point defects on magnetic hysteresis curves produced by three-dimensional vortices in layered superconductors
   C.J. Olson and F. Nori
   Physica C 363, 67 (2001).
   Online version

6. Static and dynamic coupling transitions of vortex lattices in disordered anisotropic superconductors
   C.J. Olson, G.T. Zimanyi, A.B. Kolton, and N. Gronbech-Jensen
   Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5416 (2000).
   Online version

7. Driven vortices in three-dimensional layered superconductors: Dynamical ordering along the c-axis
   A.B. Kolton, D. Dominguez, C.J. Olson, and N. Gronbech-Jensen
   Phys. Rev. B. 62, R14657 (2000).
   Online version

Related Papers:

1. Vortices freeze like window glass: the vortex molasses scenario
   C. Reichhardt, A. van Otterlo, and G.T. Zimanyi
   Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 1994 (2000).
   Online version

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Last Modified: 6/15/03