Statics and Dynamics of Vortex Liquid Crystals

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations to explore the static and dynamic behaviors of vortex liquid crystals, revealing phase states and depinning phenomena relevant to condensed matter physics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the phases and depinning dynamics of vortex liquid crystals, including the effects of disorder and external drives.

Findings

Existence of smectic-A phase without pinning

Disorder induces smectic state at T=0

Anisotropic flow states with distinct voltage signatures

Abstract

Using numerical simulations we examine the static and dynamic properties of the recently proposed vortex liquid crystal state. We confirm the existence of a smectic-A phase in the absence of pinning. Quenched disorder can induce a smectic state even at T=0. When an external drive is applied, a variety of anisotropic dynamical flow states with distinct voltage signatures occur, including elastic depinning in the hard direction and plastic depinning in the easy direction. We discuss the implications of the anisotropic transport for other systems which exhibit depinning phenomena, such as stripes and electron liquid crystals.