Depinning and dynamics of vortices confined in mesoscopic flow channels

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vortex matter in mesoscopic flow channels behaves under different structural and disorder conditions, revealing how commensurability and disorder influence critical current and dynamic vortex arrangements.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of vortex depinning and dynamics in confined channels, highlighting the effects of (dis)order and structural commensurability on critical currents and vortex configurations.

Findings

Maxima in critical current at matching channel widths for ordered arrays.

Disorder smears peaks and reduces critical current levels.

Coexistence of different vortex row configurations occurs near mismatch conditions.

Abstract

We study the behavior of vortex matter in artificial flow channels confined by pinned vortices in the channel edges (CE's). The critical current $J_s$ is governed by the interaction with static vortices in the CE's. We study structural changes associated with (in)commensurability between the channel width $w$ and the natural row spacing $b_0$, and their effect on $J_s$. The behavior depends crucially on the presence of disorder in the CE arrays. For ordered CE's, maxima in $J_s$ occur at matching $w=nb_0$ ($n$ integer), while for $w\neq nb_0$ defects along the CE's cause a vanishing $J_s$. For weak CE disorder, the sharp peaks in $J_s$ at $w=nb_0$ become smeared via nucleation and pinning of defects. The corresponding quasi-1D $n$ row configurations can be described by a (disordered)sine-Gordon model. For larger disorder and $w\simeq nb_0$, $J_s$ levels at $\sim 30 %$ of the ideal lattice strength $J_s^0$. Around 'half filling' ($w/b_0 \simeq n\pm 1/2$), disorder causes new features, namely {\it misaligned} defects and coexistence of $n$ and $n \pm 1$ rows in the channel. This causes a {\it maximum} in $J_s$ around mismatch, while $J_s$ smoothly decreases towards matching due to annealing of the misaligned regions. We study the evolution of static and dynamic structures on changing $w/b_0$, the relation between modulations of $J_s$ and transverse fluctuations and dynamic ordering of the arrays. The numerical results at strong disorder show good qualitative agreement with recent mode-locking experiments.