Nonequilibrium Dynamic Phase Diagram for Vortex Lattices

TL;DR

This paper presents a dynamic phase diagram for driven vortex lattices, revealing how lattice softness influences flux flow behavior, with distinct phases characterized by different spatial orders and noise levels, aligning with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a new dynamic phase diagram for vortex lattices that depends on lattice softness and driving current, highlighting the transition between smectic and crystalline-like flow phases.

Findings

Soft lattices exhibit smectic flux flow with independent channels.

Stiff lattices show coupled channel crystalline order.

Maximum voltage noise occurs at the crossover softness.

Abstract

The new dynamic phase diagram for driven vortices with varying lattice softness we present here indicates that, at high driving currents, at least two distinct dynamic phases of flux flow appear depending on the vortex-vortex interaction strength. When the flux lattice is soft, the vortices flow in independently moving channels with smectic structure. For stiff flux lattices, adjacent channels become locked together, producing crystalline-like order in a coupled channel phase. At the crossover lattice softness between these phases, the system produces a maximum amount of voltage noise. Our results relate spatial order with transport and are in agreement with experiments.