Abstract
We present evidence for and study the properties of coreless Josephson vortices (parallel to the superconducting layers) in the organic superconductor (BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2, using ac susceptibility measurements in the mixed state. We observe (1) extremely weak-pinning restoring forces for flux motion parallel to the layers, due to the absence of the vortex normal core; (2) single vortex (noncollective) pinning, due to weak interactions between Josephson vortices; (3) the lock-in of the vortices parallel to the layers when the dc field is applied at an arbitrary angle; and (4) highly nonlinear response to the ac field h in the lock-in state, above a threshold of h0.5 G. The behavior of tilted flux lines is dominated by the much stronger pinning and collective interactions of two-dimensional Abrikosov pancake vortices, and linear response is largely restored when the flux lines unlock from the layers. We measure the Josephson penetration depth to be (T=5 K)200 m, yielding a penetration depth anisotropy of =/160-350.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 15929-15944 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Physical Review B |
Volume | 50 |
Issue number | 21 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 1994 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Condensed Matter Physics