Metastability and uniqueness of vortex states at depinning

Abstract

We present results from numerical simulations of transport of vortices in the zero-field cooled (ZFC) and the field-cooled (FC) state of a type-II superconductor. In the absence of an applied current $I$, we find that the FC state has a lower defect density than the ZFC state, and is stable against thermal cycling. On the other hand, by cycling $I$, surprisingly we find that the ZFC state is the stable state. The FC state is metastable as manifested by increasing $I$ to the depinning current $I_{c}$, in which case the FC state evolves into the ZFC state. We also find that all configurations acquire a unique defect density at the depinning transition independent of the history of the initial states.