Current Driven Organization of Magnetic Vortices



Eva Y. Andrei1, Z.L. Xiao1, W. Henderson1,2, M. J. Higgins3, M. Shuk4, M. Greenblatt4
 
 

1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08855

2Department of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024-1547

3 NEC Research Institute, 4 Independence Way, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

4 Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08855

 


  Abstract. We report on a novel form of organization of magnetic vortices in a superconductor driven by a current. By following the vortex motion with fast transport measurements we show that the current enables the system to escape out of metastable states and explore its energy landscape. At low fields and temperatures the system relaxes into an ordered vortex lattice while just below Hc2 it is in a disordered state. In the intermediate region the vortex state can be controlled by an external driving current. In this regime the critical current can be either increased or decreased with an appropriate driving current.