Mesoscale imaging in
disordered systems: soft matter physics in hard matter systems
S. Bhattacharya
Tata Institute
of Fundamental Research,
Advances in scanning probe
microscopy have given rise to imaging techniques operating in an intermediate
scale that captures the extent of correlations in disordered condensed matter
systems. Examples include superconductors, ferroelectrics, ferromagnets
and related systems. Imaging studies reveal commonalities among these systems
related to pinning and dynamics of quasi-one dimensional objects such as
magnetic flux lines in superconductors and quasi-two dimensional objects such
as domain walls in ferroelectrics.