Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Direct Evidence for Edge-Contaminated Vortex Phase in a Nb Single Crystal using Neutron Diffraction |
| Authors: |
Hanson, Helen A., Wang, Xi, Dimitrov, Ivo K., Shi, Jing, Ling, Xinsheng Sean, Majkrzak, Charles F., Maranville, Brian B., Laver, Mark, Keiderling, Uwe, Russina, Margarita |
| Publication Year: |
2011 |
| Collection: |
Condensed Matter |
| Subject Terms: |
Condensed Matter - Superconductivity, Condensed Matter - Materials Science |
| More Details: |
We report the first direct observation of a disordered vortex matter phase existing near the edge of a bulk type-II superconductor Nb using a novel position-sensitive neutron diffraction technique. This "edge-contaminated" vortex state was implicated in previous studies using transport techniques and was postulated to have played a significant role in the behavior of vortex dynamics in a wide range of type-II superconductors. It is found that upon thermal annealing, the vortex matter in the bulk undergoes re-ordering, suggesting that the edge-contaminated bulk vortex state is metastable. The edge vortex state remains disordered after repeated thermal annealing, indicating spatial coexistence of a vortex glass with a Bragg glass. This observation resolves many outstanding issues concerning the peak effect in type-II superconductors.
Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures |
| Document Type: |
Working Paper |
| Access URL: |
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.1273 |
| Accession Number: |
edsarx.1103.1273 |
| Database: |
arXiv |
