Driven Disordered Periodic Media with an Underlying Structural Phase Transition

Abstract

We investigate the driven states of a two-dimensional crystal whose ground state can be tuned through a square-triangular transition. The depinning of such a system from a quenched random background potential occurs via a complex sequence of dynamical states, which include plastic flow states, hexatics, dynamically stabilized triangle and square phases and intermediate regimes of phase coexistence. These results are relevant to transport experiments in the mixed phase of several superconductors which exhibit such structural transitions as well as to driven colloidal systems whose interactions can be tuned via surface modifications.