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Title: Universal lower limit on vortex creep in superconductors

Journal Article · · Nature Materials
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4840 · OSTI ID:1441293

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.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1441293
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-26684
Journal Information:
Nature Materials, Vol. 16, Issue 4; ISSN 1476-1122
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 35 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (24)

Suppression of vortex lattice melting in YBCO via irradiation with fast electrons journal February 2019
Accelerated vortex dynamics across the magnetic 3D-to-2D crossover in disordered superconductors journal August 2018
Angular flux creep contributions in YBa2Cu3O7−δ nanocomposites from electrical transport measurements journal April 2018
Glassy Dynamics in a heavy ion irradiated NbSe2 crystal journal September 2018
High Trapped Fields in C-doped MgB2 Bulk Superconductors Fabricated by Infiltration and Growth Process journal September 2018
Fe-based superconducting thin films on metallic substrates: Growth, characteristics, and relevant properties journal September 2018
Frontiers of magnetic force microscopy journal February 2019
Strong pinning in the hole-doped pnictide superconductor La 0.34 Na 0.66 Fe 2 As 2 journal March 2019
Gate-tunable anomalous transverse voltage at the superconducting LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 interface journal August 2019
Flux dynamics and vortex phase diagram of the new superconductor (Li 1− x Fe x )OHFeSe single crystals journal July 2017
Study of the second magnetization peak and the pinning behaviour in Ba(Fe 0.935 Co 0.065 ) 2 As 2 pnictide superconductor journal November 2017
Strong pinning theory of thermal vortex creep in type-II superconductors journal July 2019
Thermal creep induced by cooling a superconducting vortex lattice journal February 2020
Critical de Broglie wavelength in superconductors journal March 2018
Thermal creep induced by cooling a superconducting vortex lattice text January 2020
High Trapped Fields in C-doped MgB2 Bulk Superconductors Fabricated by Infiltration and Growth Process. text January 2018
Accelerated vortex dynamics across the magnetic 3D-to-2D crossover in disordered superconductors text January 2017
Glassy Dynamics in a heavy ion irradiated NbSe2 crystal text January 2018
Strong pinning in the hole-doped pnictide superconductor La$_{0.34}$Na$_{0.66}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ text January 2019
Strong pinning theory of thermal vortex creep in type II superconductors text January 2019
Slow Vortex Creep Induced by Strong Grain Boundary Pinning in Advanced Ba122 Superconducting Tapes text January 2019
Current Induced Resistive State in Fe(Se,Te) Superconducting Nanostrips journal June 2017
Angular flux creep contributions in YBa2Cu3O7−δ nanocomposites from electrical transport measurements journal April 2018
Glassy Dynamics in a heavy ion irradiated NbSe2 crystal journal September 2018