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Melting of heterogeneous vortex matter: The vortex ‘nanoliquid’

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Abstract

Disorder and porosity are parameters that strongly influence the physical behavior of materials, including their mechanical, electrical, magnetic and optical properties. Vortices in superconductors can provide important insight into the effects of disorder because their size is comparable to characteristic sizes of nanofabricated structures. Here we present experimental evidence for a novel form of vortex matter that consists of inter-connected nanodroplets of vortex liquid caged in the pores of a solid vortex structure, like a liquid permeated into a nanoporous solid skeleton. Our nanoporous skeleton is formed by vortices pinned by correlated disorder created by high-energy heavy ion irradiation. By sweeping the applied magnetic field, the number of vortices in the nanodroplets is varied continuously from a few to several hundred. Upon cooling, the caged nanodroplets freeze into ordered nanocrystals through either a first-order or a continuous transition, whereas at high temperatures a uniform liquid phase is formed upon delocalization-induced melting of the solid skeleton. This new vortex nanoliquid displays unique properties and symmetries that are distinct from both solid and liquid phases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, 208 016, Kanpur, India

    S. S. Banerjee

  2. Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    S. S. Banerjee, S. Goldberg, Y. Myasoedov, M. Rappaport & E. Zeldov

  3. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 91109, Pasadena, California, USA

    A. Soibel

  4. Instituto Balseiro and Centro Atómico Bariloche CNEA, 8400, Bariloche, Argentina

    F. de la Cruz

  5. Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés CNRS UMR 7642 and CEA-DMS-DRECAM, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128, Palaiseau, France

    J. van der Beek & M. Konczykowski

  6. Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113-8656, Tokyo, Japan

    T. Tamegai

  7. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 60439, Argonne, Illinois, USA

    V. Vinokur

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  1. S. S. Banerjee
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  2. S. Goldberg
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  3. Y. Myasoedov
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  4. M. Rappaport
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  6. A. Soibel
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  7. F. de la Cruz
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  8. J. van der Beek
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  10. T. Tamegai
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  11. V. Vinokur
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Banerjee, S.S., Goldberg, S., Myasoedov, Y. et al. Melting of heterogeneous vortex matter: The vortex ‘nanoliquid’. Pramana - J Phys 66, 43–54 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02704936

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