The effect of field tilting on the dynamics of vortices pinned by correlated disorder

TL;DR

This paper investigates how tilting magnetic fields affect vortex dynamics in superconductors with columnar defects, revealing surface excitations' role and a critical length diverging at the delocalization transition.

Contribution

It introduces a non-Hermitian quantum mechanics approach to analyze vortex behavior under field tilt, highlighting surface effects and phase transition conditions.

Findings

Surface excitations dominate vortex transport below critical current.

Critical length depends on tilt angle and diverges at delocalization transition.

Tilt-induced surface transport can surpass bulk mechanisms in thin samples.

Abstract

Low-temperature dynamics of flux lines in high temperature, type II, superconductors in the presence of correlated disorder in the form of columnar defects is discussed. The effect of tilting the applied magnetic field with respect to the column's directions is considered, using the non-Hermitian quantum mechanics technique evaluated by Hatano and Nelson. It is shown that the critical current, as well as the vortex transport properties below this current, may be determined by ``surface excitations'', i.e., by the roughness of the flux line near the edges of the sample, which dominated the bulk jumps. Phase space considerations determine the critical thickness of the sample, below which the tilt induced surface transport exceeds the bulk mechanism. This critical length, which depend on the tilt angle as well as the directions of the perpendicular field and the suppercurrent, diverge at the delocalization transition.