| Description |
In the vortex state of a Type II superconductor, magnetic flux lines arrange themselves through mutual repulsive interactions to form a soft periodic solid. This system has long been used as a versatile model system to study the interplay between interaction and random pinning. Here, I will present real space images of the vortex lattice as it melts with temperature or magnetic field, acquired using the low temperature, high field scanning tunneling microscope built in our laboratory. These images reveal that the presence of a random pinning potential fundamentally alters the order-disorder transition, and gives rise to a variety of metastable states that can be accessed through thermomagnetic cycling.
Refs:
1) Somesh Chandra Ganguli, Harkirat Singh, Indranil Roy, Vivas Bagwe, Dibyendu Bala, Arumugam Thamizhavel, and Pratap Raychaudhuri Phys. Rev. B 93, 144503 (2016).
2) Somesh Chandra Ganguli, Harkirat Singh, Garima Saraswat, Rini Ganguly, Vivas Bagwe, Parasharam Shirage, Arumugam Thamizhavel & Pratap Raychaudhuri Scientific Reports 5, 10613 (2015).
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