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Observation of hexatic liquid vortex matter in YBa2Cu3O7

Harald Hauglin, Nathan G. Woodard, Gregory P. Lafyatis

cond-mat.supr-conarXiv:cond-mat/0209632

Abstract

An atomic beam probe is used to study the structure and dynamics of quantized supercurrent vortex lines in YBa2Cu3O7-? at temperatures up to within 0.7 K below TC. Here we report the direct observation of a vortex configuration with sample wide bond-orientational order but only short range translational correlation. The data imply the existence of an intermediate `hexatic' vortex line liquid phase. We find that the hexatic liquid is in thermal equilibrium over a narrow temperature range below TC and is quenched into an immobile hexatic glass at low temperatures.

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