Publication Date:
2014-12-24
Description:
Nature Physics 11, 21 (2015). doi:10.1038/nphys3146 Authors: I. Lukyanchuk, V. M. Vinokur, A. Rydh, R. Xie, M. V. Milošević, U. Welp, M. Zach, Z. L. Xiao, G. W. Crabtree, S. J. Bending, F. M. Peeters & W. K. Kwok Depending on the Ginzburg–Landau parameter κ, superconductors can either be fully diamagnetic if nphys3146-m1gif2765816 (type I superconductors) or allow magnetic flux to penetrate through Abrikosov vortices if nphys3146-m2gif2695416 (type II superconductors; refs , ). At the Bogomolny critical point, nphys3146-m3gif3178916, a state that is infinitely degenerate with respect to vortex spatial configurations arises. Despite in-depth investigations of conventional type I and type II superconductors, a thorough understanding of the magnetic behaviour in the near-Bogomolny critical regime at κ κc remains lacking. Here we report that in confined systems the critical regime expands over a finite interval of κ forming a critical superconducting state. We show that in this state, in a sample with dimensions comparable to the vortex core size, vortices merge into a multi-quanta droplet, which undergoes Rayleigh instability on increasing κ and decays by emitting single vortices. Superconducting vortices realize Nielsen–Olesen singular solutions of the Abelian Higgs model, which is pervasive in phenomena ranging from quantum electrodynamics to cosmology. Our study of the transient dynamics of Abrikosov–Nielsen–Olesen vortices in systems with boundaries promises access to non-trivial effects in quantum field theory by means of bench-top laboratory experiments.
Print ISSN:
1745-2473
Electronic ISSN:
1745-2481
Topics:
Physics
Permalink
