Direct Observation of Superheating and Supercooling of Vortex Matter using Neutron Diffraction

2000/08/24 by X. S. Ling, S. R. Park, Ling, X. S. +9
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con) #cond-mat.supr-con

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0008353

13 pages (RevTex), 4 figures (PostScript)

arxiv created 2000/08/24 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

We report the first observation of a striking history dependence of the structure function of the vortex matter in the peak effect regime in a Nb single crystal by using small angle neutron scattering combined with \it in situ magnetic susceptibility measurements. Metastable phases of vortex matter, supercooled vortex liquid and superheated vortex solid, have been identified. We interpret our results as direct structural evidence for a first-order solid-liquid transition at the peak effect.

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