Effective Temperature in Driven Vortex Lattices with Random Pinning

Phase Locking, Devil’s Staircases, Farey Trees, and Arnold Tongues in Driven Vortex Lattices with Periodic Pinning

Using numerical simulations, we observe phase locking, Arnold tongues, and devil’s staircases for vortex lattices driven at varying angles with respect to an underlying superconducting periodic pinning array. This rich structure should be observable in transport measurements. The transverse V sId curves have a devil’s staircase structure, with plateaus occurring near the driving angles along sy...

Effective vortex pinning in MgB2 thin films

We discuss the pinning properties of MgB2 thin films grown by pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) and by electron-beam (EB) evaporation. Two mechanisms are identified that contribute most effectively to the pinning of vortices in randomly oriented films. The EB process produces low defected crystallites with a small grain size providing enhanced pinning at grain boundaries without any degradation of ...

Vortex lattice pinning in high-temperature superconductors

Vortex matter in high temperature superconductors has many peculiar properties such as melting of the vortex lattice, creation of new vortex-liquid phases etc. These effects are not seen in conventional superconductors. This is mainly due to the fact that HTc compounds are strongly type two superconductors with Ginzburg-Landau ratio up to ~110 that makes thermal and quantum fluctuations more pr...

Plasticity in Current-Driven Vortex Lattices

Nonequilibrium dynamic phases and plastic flow of driven vortex lattices in superconductors with periodic arrays of pinning sites

We present results from an extensive series of simulations and analytical work on driven vortex lattices interacting with periodic arrays of pinning sites. An extremely rich variety of dynamical plastic flow phases, very distinct from those observed in random arrays, are found as a function of an applied driving force. Signatures of the transitions between these different dynamical phases appea...