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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). arXiv
   Featured in News and Views: D.R. Nelson, Nature 430, 839 (19 August 2004)

   
   

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

   
   

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). arXiv
   




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). arXiv

   
   

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).
   

   
   

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). arXiv

   
   

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). arXiv

   
   

8. Effect of splayed pins on vortex creep and critical currents
   C.J. Olson, R.T. Scalettar, G.T. Zimanyi, and N. Gronbech-Jensen
   Phys. Rev. B 62, R3612 (2000). arXiv

   
   

9. Vortex pinning and dynamics in layered superconductors with periodic pinning arrays
   C. Reichhardt, C.J. Olson, and N. Gronbech-Jensen
   Physica C 341-348, 1081 (2000). arXiv

   
   

10. Depinning and dynamic phases in driven three-dimensional vortex lattices in anisotropic superconductors
    C.J. Olson and N. Gronbech-Jensen
    Physica C 341-348, 1083 (2000). arXiv

    
    

11. Enhanced critical currents in high-temperature superconductors with splayed pins
    C.J. Olson, R.T. Scalettar, and G.T. Zimanyi,
    Physica C 332, 353 (2000).