PHYSICAL REVIEW B VOLUME 55, NUMBER 21 1 JUNE 1997-I

Finite vortex correlation in the c direction in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 72 d

above the first-order melting transition
E. F. Righi, S. A. Grigera, and G. Nieva
Centro Atómico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro, Comisión Nacional de Energı́a Atómica, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina

D. López
IBM Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598

F. de la Cruz
Centro Atómico Bariloche and Instituto Balseiro, Comisión Nacional de Energı́a Atómica, 8400 San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
~Received 12 February 1997!
The in- and out-of-plane resistivities of untwinned YBa 2 Cu 3 O 72 d show that at the melting temperature of
the vortex lattice T m (H), the c-axis vortex correlation length has a finite value, demonstrating that the first-
order transition is a true melting and not a decoupling transition. The vortex liquid just above T m (H) has a
correlation length in the field direction on the order of a micron. The in-plane I-V characteristics in the liquid
state show non-Ohmic behavior, providing evidence that thermal fluctuations dominate the response even at
the first-order transition. @S0163-1829~97!03421-8#

The high-temperature superconductors are rich thermody-
namic systems with a complex H-T phase diagram where
continuous transitions dominated by thermal fluctuations as
well as discontinuous first-order transitions separate the solid
vortex structure from a flux liquid.1 It has been experimen-
tally shown that the nature of the transition ~first or second
order! depends on the degree and type of disorder: point
defects, twin boundaries, and columnar defects preclude the
first-order transition. The influence of disorder on the nature
of the transition has also been made evident by numerical
simulations using arrays of Josephson junctions.2
A distinctive property of the superconducting state is the
existence of an order parameter with an amplitude and a
phase. The study of the space correlation of the phase of the
order parameter is particularly important3 to understand the
nature of the solid and liquid phases of the vortex state and
the interrelation between anisotropy,4 structural disorder,5,6
and the topological configuration of the vortex system.6,2
The transport measurements using the dc transformer con-
tact configuration7 constitute a suitable tool to determine
the velocity correlation of vortices across the thickness
of the sample.8 Such measurements, complemented with
c-axis resistivity data, have shown8–10 that in twinned
YBa2Cu3O72 d ~YBCO! crystals and in twinned crystals with
columnar defects the solid transforms at a temperature
T i (H) into a liquid of vortex lines with velocity correlation
in the field direction ~for fields applied in the c direction!. At
higher temperatures the liquid loses the correlation at a
sample-thickness dependent temperature, T th(H), at which
the thickness of the sample coincides with the thermally in-
duced vortex cutting length, l c . 11 This length, the vortex
velocity correlation length, increases as the temperature is
decreased towards the thickness independent T i (H). Similar
measurements in untwinned samples show12 that the first-
order phase transition at T m (H) takes place from a phase
correlated solid in the field direction into a liquid that has
lost the velocity correlation in all directions. Experiments
using samples of different thickness show that T m (H) is
thickness independent.9 As a consequence, the experiments
indicate that the vortex correlation length in the untwinned
samples jumps from a value limited by the thickness of the
sample in the solid phase to a length with an experimental
upper limit of 15 m m ~the minimum thickness of the samples
investigated!.
The loss of phase correlation in the direction of the field is
a common feature of the first-order phase transition detected
in the anisotropic Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 ~BSCCO!,13 as well as in
YBCO.12 Transport measurements in BSCCO have been re-
cently interpreted14 suggesting that melting coincides with a
decoupling transition,15,16 T m (H)5T d (H). In this case, the
loss of vortex correlation is due to a loss of phase coherence
between adjacent Cu-O planes. It is then of basic importance
to determine the possible universal behavior of the transition,
investigating whether the first-order transition in YBCO is
also associated with a loss of phase correlation between ad-
jacent Cu-O planes, or with a discontinuous jump into a fi-
nite thermally induced vortex cutting length.
The influence of the superconducting coupling on the
transport properties of artificial multilayer systems in the
presence of magnetic fields was discussed in Ref. 16. Within
the same spirit we have made resistance measurements in the
ab and c directions of untwinned YBCO for temperatures
above T m (H). Using these results and simple arguments we
show that there is no thermal decoupling at T m (H).
The sample of the present study is one of the high-quality
untwinned crystals used in Ref. 9. It has dimensions
(1.430.7) mm 2 in the ab planar face and 15 m m in the c
direction, with T c (H50)592.2 K. Electrical contacts were
prepared as described in Ref. 8. r c and r ab were measured
with homogeneous current distributions in the c and ab di-
rections, respectively, using standard dc techniques.
Although the nature of the degrees of freedom in the liq-
uid vortex phase is unknown, thermal decoupling will occur

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55 BRIEF REPORTS 14 157

when thermal excitations induce the loss of phase coherence

between adjacent Cu-O layers. This can be clearly visualized
using the model by Jagla and Balseiro.17 They have shown
through numerical simulations and simple general arguments
that the resistance in the direction of the applied field be-
comes finite when interconnected vortex segments induced
by thermal fluctuations percolate in the direction perpendicu-
lar to the field, forming ‘‘transverse’’ vortices. In this picture
the decoupling at T d (H) takes place when the average dis-
tance between percolative paths is reduced to that between
Cu-O planes. Thus the vortex correlation length l c is deter-
mined by the average distance between transverse vortices. It
is clear in this scenario that at T d (H) thermal excitations
dominate the transport properties in all directions and the
anisotropy in the resistivity associated with the presence of
vortices parallel to the applied field is esentially suppressed.
Thus for T.T d (H) the ratio of the out-of-plane and in-plane
resistivities r c / r ab should become temperature and field in-
dependent. In actual experiments we expect to see a weak
temperature dependence associated with the anisotropy of
the normal state of YBCO.18
The ideas discussed previously can be verified plotting
r c / r ab as a function of temperature for different fields. If the
loss of phase coherence across the sample in the c direction
takes place for T,T d , then a temperature dependent l c will
determine the resistivity ratio. When decreasing temperature
l c grows and, if l c becomes equal to or larger than the sample FIG. 1. ~a! In- and out-of-plane resistivities r ab and r c of an
thickness d, r c / r ab will tend to zero at that temperature. As untwinned YBCO single crystal as a function of temperature mea-
a consequence we expect size effects to become important sured with a current density J ab '5 A cm 22 and J c '1 A cm 22
when l c 'd. Following these very general arguments we ex- with applied fields of 20, 40, 60, and 80 kOe parallel to the c axis.
pect ~b! Temperature dependences of r c / r ab obtained from the data in
panel ~a!.
r c / r ab ~ T ! 5 r c / r ab u ` ~ T ! F ~ l c /d ! , ~1!
shown in a log-log plot in Fig. 2 for a field H520 kOe. For
where r c / r ab u ` (T)is the resistivity ratio for an infinite comparison we plot the I-V curve corresponding to the
sample and F(l c /d) takes into account the size effects. In the normal-state resistance (H50), extrapolated to 90 K. The
limit l c !d, F(l c /d) will approach unity, that is, results make clear that the nonlinearity in the liquid state of
F(l c /d)'1 at T'T d and F(l c /d)'0 whenever l c 'd, that clean samples is due to the interaction of electrical currents
is, T'T th . with thermal excitations.3 In fact, the nonlinear behavior in
In Fig. 1~a! the resistivities r c and r ab as a function of
temperature are plotted. The abrupt resistive drop corre-
sponds to the melting transition as has been shown in Ref. 9
for this sample.
In Fig. 1~b! the ratio r c (T)/ r ab (T) for different magnetic
fields is shown. The bars indicate the width of the melting
transition, taken from the temperature where the resistance
starts to drop down to that where R50 within the experi-
mental error. For each field, temperatures above the right end
of the bar correspond to the linear regime. It is clear that the
resistivity ratio for T.T m (H) remains practically constant.
However, a careful analysis of the data close to the respec-
tive T m (H) indicates that the ratio has a tendency to decrease
with temperature.
The determination of the function F(l c /d) in Eq. ~1! de-
pends on the experimental sensitivity to measure the resistiv-
ity ratio. Since the sensitivity increases with the transport
current, we measured the I-V characteristics in order to de- FIG. 2. ab-plane voltage versus current characteristics in an
termine the maximum measuring current compatible with a applied field of 20 kOe for temperatures between 90.1 K ~top curve!
linear response regime. and 88.3 K ~bottom curve! in 0.3 K intervals. The straight solid line
Before discussing the behavior of the resistivity ratio it is represents the I-V curve in the normal state ~see text!. Inset: resis-
relevant to discuss the I-V characteristics in the ab direction, tance vs current curves obtained from the I-V data.
14 158 BRIEF REPORTS
FIG. 3. Temperature dependence of the ratio of resistances
R c /R ab measured with current densities J ab '100 A cm 22 and
J c '10 A cm 22 . T c (H50)592.2 K is indicated.
the liquid state in clean samples resembles that associated
with the growth of vortex rings induced by thermal fluctua-
tions above the second order phase transition in twinned
samples.
It is evident from Fig. 2 that the range of currents where
the response is linear is rather broad, even just above
T m (H). This is an interesting result showing that the liquid
state in an ideal sample could be supercooled to temperatures
well below T m (H), meaning that the small hysteresis width
experimentally detected19 in the first-order transition is much
smaller than that corresponding to an ideal sample.
The resistance ratio obtained through measurements using
the largest currents compatible with a linear response in the
regime T.T m (H) is plotted in Fig. 3. The data below
T m (H), where nonlinear effects dominate the transport
response,12,20 are not included. We see that the ratio r c / r ab
is temperature dependent above T m (H), demonstrating that
the vortex liquid is characterized by the presence of vortex
thermal excitations with a finite correlation length l c in the
field direction at the melting transition.
To obtain an order of magnitude of l c we use the expected
functional dependence of F(l c /d) in the limit l c !d, that is
S
F ~ l c /d ! ' 12a
lc
d D, ~2!
where a is a constant of order unity. Using Eqs. ~1! and ~2!
and the data of Fig. 3 and putting a51 we obtain l c (T),
plotted in Fig. 4. We see that l c is always smaller than the
thickness of the sample down to T m (H), a result that ex-
plains why no velocity correlation was found with trans-
former measurements.9
The experimental data in Fig. 4 suggest the existence of a
decoupling temperature marked by a crossover from a tem-
perature dependent resistivity ratio to a temperature indepen-
55
FIG. 4. Temperature dependence of the correlation length l c
calculated from R c /R ab of Fig. 3 as explained in the text.
dent regime. However, we have not reached enough sensitiv-
ity in the resistance measurements to detect correlation
lengths of the order of Cu-O interplane distances. The ex-
perimental voltage sensitivity allows a detection of a mini-
mum l c '1000 Å, well above the decoupling distance.
In order to test the validity of Eq. 2 we applied it to
calculate l c in twinned samples, where it has been indepen-
dently determined.9 Figure 5 shows l c from r c / r ab data for
three different twinned samples of thicknesses 20, 40, and 48
m m. The agreement with the T th(d) dependence ~full
squares! is evident in spite of the extended range of the cal-
culated l c ~up to the sample thickness values!. We do not
claim that the linear approximation used in Eq. ~2! is the
functional dependence that a theory would predict for
F(l c /d). However, we show that it is a useful empirical
relation to provide the correct order of magnitude of l c .
In summary, precise resistivity measurements in the c and
ab directions in the liquid state of clean YBCO samples
provide strong experimental evidence showing that contrary
to what is claimed in BSCCO, the first-order transition is a
melting and not a decoupling. This could indicate a funda-
FIG. 5. Temperature dependence of l c from direct measure-
ments ~full squares! and calculated from R c /R ab data for three
twinned YBCO samples of thicknesses 20 m m ~open squares!, 40
m m ~open diamonds!, and 48 m m ~open circles!. Inset: R c /R ab vs
T for the 40 m m crystal.
55 BRIEF REPORTS
mental difference between the microscopic mechanism in-
ducing the phase transition in both systems and might be
related to the qualitative difference between the temperature
dependences of the respective entropy jumps at the
transition.21 We have been able to detect that even above the
first-order transition the transport properties of YBCO are
determined by thermal excitations with finite vortex correla-
tion in the c direction. The measurements open the possibil-
ity of studying the fluctuations of the liquid regime in clean
samples and stimulate the need of further experimental and
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14 159
theoretical work to determine the thermodynamic properties
of the liquid state and its ideal stability limit in the phase
diagram.
We thank D. Nelson, C. Balseiro, and E. Jagla for useful
discussions. This work was partially supported by Fundación
Antorchas ~Grant No. A-13359/1-000013! and the Consejo
Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı́ficas y Técnicas
~CONICET! ~Grant No. CO 21418/95!. G.N. and S.A.G.
were supported by CONICET.
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