Abstract
We demonstrate the existence of a novel superconducting state in high quality two-component single crystalline superconductors where a unique combination of both type-1 () and type-2 () superconductor conditions is realized for the two components of the order parameter. This condition leads to a vortex-vortex interaction attractive at long distances and repulsive at short distances, which stabilizes unconventional stripe- and gossamerlike vortex patterns that we have visualized in this type-1.5 superconductor using Bitter decoration and also reproduced in numerical simulations.
- Received 22 December 2008
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.117001
©2009 American Physical Society
Viewpoint
Attractive vortices
Published 16 March 2009
Decoration experiments of the two-gap superconductor show evidence for long-range attraction between vortices in a superconducting mixed state, which is interpreted as coexisting type-I and type-II superconductivity.
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