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Tuning the structure of the Josephson vortex lattice in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals with pancake vortices

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics
  2. Univ. of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics; Univ. of Kirkuk, Kirkuk (Iraq). Dept. of Physics
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
  4. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan). Dept. of Applied Physics; Nagoya Univ. (Japan). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
  5. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan). Dept. of Applied Physics

In extremely anisotropic cuprate superconductors a lattice of stacks of pancake vortices nucleates when a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the copper oxide layers, while an orthogonal lattice of highly elliptical Josephson vortices forms when the applied field is parallel to the layers. Under tilted magnetic fields these sublattices can interact in complex ways to form systems of vortex chains and composite vortex lattices. Here we have used high-resolution scanning Hall microscopy to map the rich tilted-field vortex phase diagram in an underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystal. We find that the Josephson vortex lattice spacing has an unexpected non-monotonic dependence on the pancake vortex density reflecting the delicate balance between attractive and repulsive vortex interactions, and actually undergoes a field-driven structural transformation at high out-of-plane fields. We also identify particularly stable composite structures composed of vortex chains separated by an integer number of rows of interstitial pancake vortex stacks and are able to establish the precise evolution of vortex chain phases as the out-of-plane field is increased at small in-plane fields. Lastly, our results are in good semi-quantitative agreement with theoretical models and could enable the development of vortex ratchets and lenses based on the interactions between Josephson and pancake vortices.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1466329
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 8; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (5)

Attractive interaction between superconducting vortices in tilted magnetic fields journal March 2019
Combinatorial laser molecular beam epitaxy system integrated with specialized low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy journal January 2020
Attractive interaction between superconducting vortices in tilted magnetic fields text January 2022
Attractive interaction between superconducting vortices in tilted magnetic fields text January 2018
Combinatorial Laser Molecular Beam Epitaxy System Integrated with Specialized Low-temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy text January 2020

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