Giant Peak Effect Observed in Ultrapure YBCO Crystal

TL;DR

This study reports a giant peak in the ac magnetic response of ultrapure YBCO crystals, revealing a sharp increase in screening current and suggesting a weak first-order vortex-lattice melting transition.

Contribution

It provides the first observation of a giant peak effect in ultrapure YBCO, linking it to vortex-lattice melting and phase transition characteristics.

Findings

35-fold increase in screening current density with 0.5 K temperature rise

Peak effect observable up to 7.0 T magnetic field

Discontinuous jump in equilibrium magnetization indicating phase transition

Abstract

A giant peak in the temperature dependence of the screening current is observed in the ac magnetic response of an ultra-pure YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.993}$ crystal in a magnetic field. At H = 2.0 T ({\bf $H$}$||${\bf c}), the screening current density $J_c(T)$ exhibits a 35-fold rise with 0.5 K increase in temperature, indicating an abrupt $10^3$-fold collapse in the characteristic volume of ordered regions in the vortex array. The peak-effect anomaly is most pronounced for $H<$ 4.0 T, but detectable up to 7.0 T. The temperature dependence of the equilibrium magnetization exhibits a small discontinuous jump (for high fields) inside the peak-effect regime, suggesting that the underlying phase transition is a weak first-order vortex-lattice melting transition.