Observation of a hexatic vortex glass in flux lattices of the high-Tc superconductor Bi2.1Sr1.9Ca0.9Cu2O8+δ

C. A. Murray; P. L. Gammel; D. J. Bishop; D. B. Mitzi; A. Kapitulnik

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.2312

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Observation of a hexatic vortex glass in flux lattices of the high-Tc superconductor Bi2.1Sr1.9Ca0.9Cu2O8+δ

C. A. Murray, P. L. Gammel, D. J. Bishop, D. B. Mitzi, A. Kapitulnik

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.64.2312 · Physical Review Letters

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Abstract

We report observation of hexatic order in Abrikosov flux lattices in very clean crystals of the high-Tc superconductor Bi2.1Sr1.9Ca0.9Cu2O8+δ. Our experiments consist of in situ magnetic decoration of the flux lattice at 4.2 K. Analysis of the decoration images shows that the positional order decays exponentially with a correlation length of a few lattice constants while the orientational order persists for hundreds of lattice constants and decays algebraically with an exponent η6=0.06±0.01. Our results confirm recent theoretical speculation that the positional order should be far more sensitive to disorder than the orientational order and that the low-temperature ordered phase of the flux lines in these systems might be a hexatic glass.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

Formula	Reported Tc (K)	Pressure (GPa)	Type
Bi2.1Sr1.9Ca0.9Cu2O8+δ Archive — visibility unverified Source-occurrence policy only; no material identity or catalogue acceptance is inferred from the formula.	88	Pressure not reported	onset