Direct Observation of Melting of the Vortex Solid inSingle Crystals
- 20 April 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 80 (16) , 3610-3613
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.80.3610
Abstract
A scanning Hall probe microscope has been used to directly observe the vortex lattice melting transition in single crystals. Below the melting line, the system settles into a fairly well-ordered vortex solid which undergoes pronounced rotations as the field is increased due to incommensurability effects. Vortex contrast is lost abruptly and discontinuously at the melting line consistent with a first order transition. Vortex profiles appear to be strongly broadened by two-dimensional fluctuations which grow much stronger as the melting line is approached from below, suggesting that melting and decoupling are almost simultaneous.
Keywords
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