Nonequilibrium dynamic phases and plastic flow of driven vortex lattices in superconductors with periodic arrays of pinning sites

Abstract

We present results from an extensive series of simulations and analytical work on driven vortex lattices interacting with periodic arrays of pinning sites. An extremely rich variety of dynamical plastic flow phases, very distinct from those observed in random arrays, are found as a function of an applied driving force. Signatures of the transitions between these different dynamical phases appear as very pronounced jumps and dips in striking voltage-current V(I) curves that exhibit hysteresis, reentrant behavior, and negative differential conductivity. By monitoring the moving vortex lattice, we show that these features coincide with pronounced changes in the microscopic structure and transport behavior of the driven lattice. For the case when the number of vortices is greater than the number of pinning sites, the plastic flow regimes include a one-dimensional (1D) interstitial flow of vortices between the rows of pinned vortices, a disordered flow regime where 2D pin-to-pin and winding interstitial motion of vortices occurs, and a 1D incommensurate flow regime where vortex motion is confined along the pinning rows. In the last case, flux-line channels with an incommensurate number of vortices contain mobile flux discommensurations or “flux solitons,” and commensurate channels remain pinned. At high driving forces, the 1D incommensurate paths of moving vortices persist with the entire vortex lattice flowing. In this regime, the incommensurate channels move at a higher velocity than the commensurate ones, causing incommensurate and commensurate rows of moving vortices to slide past one another. Thus there is no recrystallization at large driving forces. Moreover, these phases cannot be described by elastic theories. Different system parameters produce other phases, including an ordered channel flow regime, where a small number of vortices are pinned and the rest of the lattice flows through the interstitial regions, and a vacancy flow regime, which occurs when the number of vortices is less than the number of pinning sites. We also find a striking reentrant disordered-motion regime in which the vortex lattice undergoes a series of order-disorder transitions that display unusual hysteresis properties. By varying a wide range of values for the microscopic pinning parameters, including pinning strength, radius, density, and the degree of ordering, as well as varying the commensurability of the vortex lattice with its pinning substrate, we obtain a series of interesting dynamic phase diagrams that outline the onset of the different dynamical phases. We show that many of these phases and the phase boundaries can be well understood in terms of analytical arguments.

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