Observation of two species of vortices in the anisotropic spin-triplet superconductor Sr$_{2}$RuO$_{4}$

V. O. Dolocan (1) , P. Lejay (1) , D. Mailly (2) , Klaus Hasselbach (1)

1 CRTBT - Centre de Recherches sur les Très Basses Températures
2 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures

Magnetic flux structures in single crystals of the layered spin triplet superconductor Sr$_{2}$RuO$_{4}$ are studied by scanning micro SQUID Force microscopy. Vortex chains appear as the applied field is tilted along the in-plane direction of the superconductor. The vortex chains align along the direction of the in-plane component of the applied magnetic field. The decoration of in-plane vortices by crossing Abrikosov vortices is observed: two vortex orientations are apparent simultaneously, one along the layers and the other perpendicular to the layers. The crossing vortices appear preferentially on the in-plane vortices.

Mots clés: ruthenate; superconductivity; SQUID; vortex

Domaines: Supraconductivité [cond-mat.supr-con]

V. O. Dolocan, P. Lejay, D. Mailly, Klaus Hasselbach. Observation of two species of vortices in the anisotropic spin-triplet superconductor Sr$_{2}$RuO$_{4}$. Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (1998-2015), 2006, 74, pp.144505. ⟨hal-00108330⟩