We examine the dynamics and stripe formation in a system with competing short and long-range interactions in the presence of both an applied dc drive and quenched disorder. Without disorder, the system forms stripes organized in a labyrinth state. We find that, when the disorder strength exceeds a critical value, an applied dc drive can induce a dynamical stripe ordering transition to a state that is more ordered than the originating undriven, unpinned pattern. We show that signatures in the structure factor and transport properties correspond to this dynamical reordering transition, and we present the dynamic phase diagram as a function of strengths of disorder and dc drive.

• Received 30 August 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.026401