Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Xiao, Z. L..
In the original version of this Article, the ORCID ID for S. Eley was omitted. In addition, the original version of Figure 1 was incorrectly labelled as Figure 1a. These errors have now been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the Article.
Fascination with glassy states has persisted since Fisher introduced the vortex-glass as a new thermodynamic phase that is a true superconductor that lacks conventional long-range order. Though Fisher’s original model considered point disorder, it was later predicted that columnar defects (CDs) could also induce glassiness — specifically, a Bose-glass phase. In YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7–x (YBCO), glassy states can cause distinct behavior in the temperature (T) dependent rate of thermally activated vortex motion (S). The vortex-glass state produces a plateau in S(T) whereas a Bose-glass can transition into a state hosting vortex excitations called double-kinks that can expand, creating a large peak in S(T). Although glass phases have been well-studied in YBCO, few studies exist of other materials containing CDs that could contribute to distinguishing universal behavior. Here, we report on the effectiveness of CDs tilted ~30° from the c-axis in reducing S in a NbSe 2 crystal. The magnetization is 5 times higher and S is minimized when the field is parallel to the defects versus aligned with the c-axis. We see signatures of glassiness in both field orientations, but do not observe a peak in S(T) nor a plateau at values observed in YBCO. Lastly, we discuss the possibility that competing disorder induces a field-orientation-driven transition from a Bose-glass to an anisotropic glass involving both point and columnar disorder.
Here, we report the occurrence of reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP. When the applied magnetic field H is above a critical value H c , a reentrance appears as a peak in the temperature-dependent resistivity ρ xx (T) at T=T p , similar to that observed in graphite where it was attributed to local superconductivity. The Tp(H) relationship follows a power-law dependence T p ~(H–H c ) 1/ν where ν can be derived from the temperature dependence of the zero-field resistivity ρ 0 (T)~T ν . From concurrent measurements of the transverse ρ xx (T) and Hall ρ xy (T) magnetoresistivities, we reveal a clear correlation between the rapidly increasing ρ xy (T) and the occurrence of a peak in the ρ xx (T) curve. Quantitative analysis indicates that the reentrant metallic behavior arises from the competition of the magnetoconductivity σ xx (T) with an additional component Δσ xx (T)=κHσ xx (T) where κ H =[ρ xy (T)/ρ xx (T)] 2 is the Hall factor. We find that the Hall factor (κ H ≈0.4) at peak temperature T p is nearly field independent, leading to the observed T p (H) relationship. Furthermore, the reentrant metallic behavior in ρ xx (T) also is reflected in the behavior of ρ xx (H) that ranges from nonsaturating at T > 70K to saturation at liquid-helium temperatures. The latter can be explained with the magnetic field dependence of the Hall factor κ H (H). Lastly, our paper demonstrates that a semiclassical theory can account for the “anomalies” in the magnetotransport phenomena of NbP without invoking an exotic mechanism.
Extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) was recently discovered in YSb but its origin, along with that of many other XMR materials, is an active subject of debate. Here we demonstrate that YSb, with a cubic crystalline lattice and anisotropic bulk electron Fermi pockets, can be an excellent candidate for revealing the origin of XMR. We carried out angle dependent Shubnikov – de Haas quantum oscillation measurements to determine the volume and shape of the Fermi pockets. In addition, by investigating both Hall and longitudinal magnetoresistivities, we reveal that the origin of XMR in YSb lies in its carrier high mobility with a diminishing Hall factor that is obtained from the ratio of the Hall and longitudinal magentoresistivities. The high mobility leads to a strong magnetic field dependence of the longitudinal magnetoconductivity while a diminishing Hall factor reveals the latent XMR hidden in the longitudinal magnetoconductivity whose inverse has a nearly quadratic magnetic-field dependence. The Hall factor highlights the deviation of the measured magnetoresistivity from its full potential value and provides a general formulation to reveal the origin of XMR behavior in high mobility materials and of nonsaturating MR behavior as a whole. Our approach can be readily applied to other XMR materials.
A conformal pinning array can be created by conformally transforming a uniform triangular pinning lattice to produce a new structure in which the six-fold ordering of the original lattice is conserved but where there is a spatial gradient in the density of pinning sites. Here we examine several aspects of vortices interacting with conformal pinning arrays and how they can be used to create a flux flow diode effect for driving vortices in different directions across the arrays. Under the application of an ac drive, a pronounced vortex ratchet effect occurs where the vortices flow in the easy direction of the array asymmetry. When the ac drive is applied perpendicular to the asymmetry direction of the array, it is possible to realize a transverse vortex ratchet effect where there is a generation of a dc flow of vortices perpendicular to the ac drive due to the creation of a noise correlation ratchet by the plastic motion of the vortices. We also examine vortex transport in experiments and compare the pinning effectiveness of conformal arrays to uniform triangular pinning arrays. We find that a triangular array generally pins the vortices more effectively at the first matching field and below, while the conformal array is more effective at higher fields where interstitial vortex flow occurs.
The key ingredient of high critical currents in a type-II superconductor is defect sites that pin vortices. Here, we demonstrate that a random pinscape, an overlooked pinning system in nanopatterned superconductors, can lead to a substantially larger critical current enhancement at high magnetic fields than an ordered array of vortex pin sites. We reveal that the better performance of a random pinscape is due to the variation of the local density of its pinning sites, which mitigates the motion of vortices. This is confirmed by achieving even higher enhancement of the critical current through a conformally mapped random pinscape, where the distribution of the local density of pinning sites is further enlarged. Our findings highlight the potential of random pinscapes in enhancing the superconducting critical currents of applied superconductors in which random pin sites of nanoscale defects emerging in the materials synthesis process or through ex-situ irradiation are the only practical choice for large-scale production. Our results may also stimulate research on effects of a random pinscape in other complementary systems such as colloidal crystals, Bose-Einstein condensates, and Luttinger liquids.
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We determine the upper and lower critical fields, the penetration depth and the vortex pinning characteristics of single crystals of overdoped Ba 0.2 K 0.8 Fe 2 As 2 with T c ~ 10 K. We find that bulk vortex pinning is weak and vortex dynamics to be dominated by the geometrical surface barrier. The temperature dependence of the lower critical field, H c1 , displays a distinctive upturn at low temperatures, which is suggestive of two distinct superconducting gaps. Furthermore, the penetration depth, λ, varies linearly with temperature below 4 K indicative of line nodes in the superconducting gap. As a result, these observations can be well described in a model based on a multi-band nodal superconducting gap.
Depending on the Ginzburg-Landau material parameter , superconductors can either be fully diamagnetic if k < 1√2 (type I superconductors) or accommodate magnetic field in the form of Abrikosov vortices if k > 1√2 (type II superconductors).1,2 At Bogomolny critical point, k = kc = 1 √2, a state, infinitely degenerated with respect to vortex spatial configurations, arises.3,4 While conventional type I and type II superconductors are investigated in depth, a thorough understanding of magnetic behaviour in the near-Bogomolny critical regime at k ~ kc is still lacking. Here we report that in restricted systems the critical regime expands over a finite interval of k forming critical superconducting state. We show that in this state, in a sample with dimensions comparable with the vortex core size, vortices merge into a multi-quanta droplet, which undergoes Rayleigh instability5 upon increasing k and decays by emitting single vortices. Superconducting vortices materialize Nielsen-Olesen singular solutions of the Abelian Higgs model pervasive in phenomena ranging from quantum electrodynamics to cosmology.6,7,8,9 Our work, revealing transient dynamics of Abrikosov-Nielsen-Olesen vortices in systems with boundaries, promises access to novel effects in quantum field theory via bench-top laboratory experiments.
We report an anomalous matching effect in MoGe thin films containing pairs of circular holes arranged in such a way that four of those pairs meet at each vertex point of a square lattice. A remarkably pronounced fractional matching was observed in the magnetic field dependences of both the resistance and the critical current. At the half matching field the critical current can be even higher than that at zero field. This has never been observed before for vortices in superconductors with pinning arrays. Numerical simulations within the nonlinear Ginzburg-Landau theory reveal a square vortex ice configuration in the ground state at the half matching field and demonstrate similar characteristic features in the field dependence of the critical current, confirming the experimental realization of an artificial ice system for vortices for the first time.
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