Abstract
We show that the dynamical freezing of vortex structures nucleated at diluted densities in samples with a dense distribution of columnar defects, with , results in configurations with liquidlike correlations. We propose a freezing model considering a relaxation dynamics dominated by double-kink excitations driven by the local stresses obtained directly from experimental images. With this model we estimate the relaxation barrier and the freezing temperature. We argue that the low-field frozen vortex structures nucleated in a dense distribution of columnar defects thus correspond to an out-of-equilibrium nonentangled liquid with strongly reduced mobility rather than to a snapshot of a metastable state with divergent activation barriers as, for instance, expected for the Bose-glass phase at equilibrium.
- Received 22 June 2015
- Revised 22 December 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.054505
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