Hall tunneling of vortices in superclean superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the quantum tunneling behavior of pancake vortices in superclean high-temperature superconductors, focusing on Hall tunneling and vortex lifetime calculations in the presence of defects.

Contribution

It introduces a formalism for calculating vortex lifetime and applies it to quantum tunneling of vortices from defects under small currents.

Findings

Vortex lifetime can be quantitatively estimated using the formalism.

Quantum tunneling of vortices is significant in superclean high-$T_c$ superconductors.

Hall tunneling features are characterized in the context of vortex pinning and escape.

Abstract

We discuss the main features of Hall tunneling of pancake vortices in superclean high-$T_{c}$ superconductors. The general formalism for the calculation of the lifetime of a vortex pinned in a metastable configuration is described. The results are applied to the problem of quantum tunneling of a pancake vortex from a columnar defect in the limit of a small driving current.