Resistive evidence for vortex-lattice sublimation inBi2Sr2

Abstract

Multiterminal measurements have been made on Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 crystals to investigate the vortex dimensionality at the fields and temperatures where the first-order transition takes place in the vortex lattice. A sharp hysteretic transition is seen in transport properties with current injected either parallel or perpendicular to the ab planes. The data indicate that both resistivity components disappear concurrently, and the melting and c-axis decoupling transitions occur simultaneously at a sublimation transition of the vortex lattice. ͓S0163-1829͑97͒05110-2͔

Collective pinning of the vortex lattice by columnar defects in layered superconductors

“…1 and that is listed in [5]. A direct sublimation transition between a vortex solid and a decoupled vortex-liquid phase is in fact consistent with previous experimental studies of the unirradiated system [16]. It is also predicted to occur theoretically in the vortex lattice state of pristine layered superconductors at sufficiently weak Josephson coupling, provided that the vortex lattice in isolated layers melts through a first-order transition [15].…”

Transport Properties ofBi2Sr2CaCu2O<

“…Upon freezing, the resistance in BSCCO crystals is observed to drop sharply below the noise level [17,18]. This behavior is often ascribed to the sudden onset of bulk pinning.…”

Possible New Vortex Matter Phases inBi2Sr2CaCu2Fuchs1, Zeldov2, Tamegai3 et al. 1998Phys. Rev. Lett.Self Cite150141120View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…One of the numerous open questions is the structure of the vortex fluid phase, and whether it is further subdivided into two phases: a liquid of vortex lines, and a decoupled gas of vortex pancakes in the CuO planes [13][14][15]. Both of these fluid phases are weakly pinned, and therefore display high resistivity and reversible magnetization, and thus the existence of a possible transition between them is difficult to resolve.…”

“…At the FOT, a sharp drop in sample resistance by typically two orders of magnitude is observed [15,20]. This drop is usually ascribed to the onset of pinning upon freezing into the solid phase [3,4].…”

“…Recent flux transformer studies [15] suggest that at high temperatures the FOT is a sublimation transition, and hence phase E is a lattice of vortex lines and phase C is a gas of pancakes. Our results here are consistent with this conclusion showing that phase E is the most ordered and coherent one, whereas phase C is highly uncorrelated.…”