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Title: Universal lower limit on vortex creep in superconductors

Abstract

Superconductors are excellent testbeds for studying vortices, topological excitations that also appear in superfluids, liquid crystals and Bose–Einstein condensates. Vortex motion can be disruptive; it can cause phase transitions, glitches in pulsars, and losses in superconducting microwave circuits, and it limits the current-carrying capacity of superconductors4. Understanding vortex dynamics is fundamentally and technologically important, and the competition between thermal energy and energy barriers defined by material disorder is not completely understood. Specifically, early measurements of thermally activated vortex motion (creep) in iron-based superconductors unveiled fast rates (S) comparable to measurements of YBa2Cu3O7–δ. This was puzzling because S is thought to somehow correlate with the Ginzburg number (Gi), and Gi is significantly lower in most iron-based superconductors than in YBa2Cu3O7–δ. Here, we report very slow creep in BaFe 2(As0.67P0.33)2 films, and propose the existence of a universal minimum realizable S ~ Gi1/2(T/Tc) (Tc is the superconducting transition temperature) that has been achieved in our films and few other materials, and is violated by none. Furthermore, this limitation provides new clues about designing materials with slow creep and the interplay between material parameters and vortex dynamics.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Seikei Univ., Tokyo (Japan)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1441293
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-26684
Journal ID: ISSN 1476-1122
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 16; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 1476-1122
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Citation Formats

Eley, Serena Merteen, Miura, Masashi, Maiorov, Boris Alfredo, and Civale, Leonardo. Universal lower limit on vortex creep in superconductors. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1038/nmat4840.
Eley, Serena Merteen, Miura, Masashi, Maiorov, Boris Alfredo, & Civale, Leonardo. Universal lower limit on vortex creep in superconductors. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4840
Eley, Serena Merteen, Miura, Masashi, Maiorov, Boris Alfredo, and Civale, Leonardo. Mon . "Universal lower limit on vortex creep in superconductors". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4840. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1441293.
@article{osti_1441293,
title = {Universal lower limit on vortex creep in superconductors},
author = {Eley, Serena Merteen and Miura, Masashi and Maiorov, Boris Alfredo and Civale, Leonardo},
abstractNote = {Superconductors are excellent testbeds for studying vortices, topological excitations that also appear in superfluids, liquid crystals and Bose–Einstein condensates. Vortex motion can be disruptive; it can cause phase transitions, glitches in pulsars, and losses in superconducting microwave circuits, and it limits the current-carrying capacity of superconductors4. Understanding vortex dynamics is fundamentally and technologically important, and the competition between thermal energy and energy barriers defined by material disorder is not completely understood. Specifically, early measurements of thermally activated vortex motion (creep) in iron-based superconductors unveiled fast rates (S) comparable to measurements of YBa2Cu3O7–δ. This was puzzling because S is thought to somehow correlate with the Ginzburg number (Gi), and Gi is significantly lower in most iron-based superconductors than in YBa2Cu3O7–δ. Here, we report very slow creep in BaFe 2(As0.67P0.33)2 films, and propose the existence of a universal minimum realizable S ~ Gi1/2(T/Tc) (Tc is the superconducting transition temperature) that has been achieved in our films and few other materials, and is violated by none. Furthermore, this limitation provides new clues about designing materials with slow creep and the interplay between material parameters and vortex dynamics.},
doi = {10.1038/nmat4840},
journal = {Nature Materials},
number = 4,
volume = 16,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Mon Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

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