Abstract
It has long been known that magnetic fields penetrate type II superconductors in the form of quantized superconducting vortices. Most recent research in this area has, however, focused on the collective properties of large numbers of strongly interacting vortices1,2: the study of vortex physics on the mesoscopic scale (a regime in which a small number of vortices are confined in a small volume) has in general been hampered by the lack of suitable experimental probes. Here we use a silicon micromachined mechanical resonator to resolve the dynamics of single vortices in micrometre-sized samples of the superconductor 2H-NbSe2. Measurements at and slightly above the lower critical field, H c1 (the field at which magnetic flux first penetrates the superconductor), where only a few vortices are present, reveal a rich spectrum of sharp, irreversible vortex rearrangements. At higher fields, where tens of vortices are present, the sharp features become reversible, suggesting that we are resolving a new regime of vortex dynamics in which the detailed configuration of pinning sites, sample geometry and vortex interactions produce significant changes in the measurable vortex resonse. This behaviour can be described within the framework of interacting vortex linesin a ‘1 + 1’-dimensional random potential—an important (but largely untested) theoretical model for disorder-dominated systems11,12.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Safar, H. et al . Experimental evidence for a 1st-order vortex-lattice-melting transition in untwinned single-crystal YBa2Cu3O7. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 824–827 (1992).
Brézin, E., Nelson, D. R. & Thiaville, A. Fluctuation effects near H c2in type-II superconductors. Phys. Rev. B 31, 7124–7132 (1985).
Kleiman, R. N., Agnolet, G. & Biship, D. J. Two-level systems observed in the mechanical properties of single-crystal silicon at low temperatures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2079–2082 (1987).
Kleiman, R. N., Kaminsky, G. K., Reppy, J. D., Pindak, R. & Bishop, D. J. Single-crystal silicon high-Q torsional oscillators. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 56, 2088–2091 (1985).
Bishop, D. J. & Reppy, J. D. Study of the superfluid transition in two-dimensional 4He films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 40, 1727–1730 (1978).
Bolle, C. A., de la Cruz, F., Gammel, P. L., Waszczak, J. V. & Bishop, D. J. Observation of tilt induced orientational order in the magnetic flux lattice in 2H-NbSe2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 4039–4042 (1993).
Duarte, A. et al . Dynamically induced disorder in the vortex lattice of 2H-NbSe2. Phys. Rev. B 53, 11336–11339 (1996).
Yaron, U. et al . Neutron diffraction studies of flowing and pinned magnetic flux lattices in 2H-NbSe2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 2748–2751 (1994).
Akkermans, E., Montambaux, Pichard, J. I. & Zinn-Justin, J. (eds) Mesoscopic Quantum Physics(North-Holland, Amsterdam, (1994).
de Trey, P., Gygax, S. & Jan, J.-P. Anisotropy of the Ginzburg–Landau parameter κ in NbSe2. J. Low Temp. Phys. 11, 421–434 (1973).
Nelson, D. R. Vortex entanglement in high-T csuperconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 1973–1976 (1988).
Natterman, T. & Lipowsky, R. Comment on vortex entanglement in high-T csuperconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2508 (1988).
Huse, D. A., Henley, C. L. & Fisher, D. S. Response on comment on roughening by impurities at finite temperature. Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 2924 (1985).
Forster, D., Nelson, D. R. & Stephen, M. J. Large-distance and long-time properties of a randomly stirred fluid. Phys. Rev. A 16, 732–749 (1977).
Halpin-Healy, T. & Zhang, Y. Kinetic roughening phenomena, stochastic growth, directed polymers and all that. Phys. Rep. 254, 215–415 (1995).
Hwa, T., Nelson, D. R. & Vinokur, V. M. Flux-line pinning by competing disorders. Phys. Rev. B 48, 1167–1174 (1993).
Hwa, T. & Lässig, M. Similarity detection and localization. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 2591–2594 (1996).
Hwa, T. & Fisher, D. S. Vortex glass phase and universal susceptibility variations in planar arrays of flux lines. Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 2466–2469 (1994).
Fisher, M. P. A. Vortex-glass superconductivity: a possible new phase in bulk high-T coxides. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1415–1418 (1989).
Acknowledgements
We thank J. Blatter, T. Hwa, V. Kogan and V. Vinokur for helpful discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bolle, C., Aksyuk, V., Pardo, F. et al. Observation of mesoscopic vortex physics using micromechanical oscillators. Nature 399, 43–46 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/19924
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/19924
This article is cited by
-
Silicon Micro-Machines for Fun and Profit
Journal of Low Temperature Physics (2012)
-
Geometry spawns vortices
Nature (2000)
-
From vortices to genomics
Nature (1999)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.