High-frequency crossover from vortex-mass enhancement to pinning

Abstract

Starting from lattice dynamics, Ginzburg Landau Theory is used to study phonon contributions
to the effective vortex mass of a moving Abrikosov lattice driven by a small driving force, in this case
circularly polarized light. A general expression is obtained of dynamical additional mass, which is
capable of including both acoustic and optical phonon contributions. At the level of linear response,
this frequency-dependent mass increases with driving frequency. After reaching a maximum at the
frequency corresponding to the eigenvalue of the wave vector matching the coherence length, the
mass begins to decrease, and eventually changes sign crossing to an effective pinning regime at high
frequency. These calculations are applied to experimental results of YBCO [Scientific Reports 11,
21708 (2021)].