Doping dependent vortex activation energy and pseudogap in Y123

Abstract

The temperature and magnetic field dependent activation energy, U(T, H), is one of the most important parameter in the field of applied superconductivity as it primarily determines both the crtical current density and the irreversibility field. Previously, we have determined the doping dependent U(T, H) from the analysis of field dependent resistive transitions in high-quality c-axis oriented crytalline thin films of Y123 (arXiv:1207.4312). In this short communication, we have showed a direct link between the characteristic field Ho that sets the magnitude of U(T, H) and the pseudogap temperature, T*. The strong dependence of Ho on the in-plane hole content, p, seems to follow from the p-dependent evolution of the pseudogap energy scale (T*, when expressed in temperature) which reduces the superconducting condensation energy as hole concentration decreases.