PHYSICAL REVIEW B, VOLUME 63, 212509

Finite-size effects in the Bose-glass transition

S. A. Grigera
Instituto de Fı́sica de Lı́quidos y Sistemas Biológicos (IFLYSIB)-(UNLP-CONICET-CIC), Casilla de Correo No. 565,
1900 La Plata, Argentina
共Received 29 September 2000; published 8 May 2001兲
We present the scaling relations for a Bose-glass superconductor in the case in which the sample is limited
in size in the direction of the correlated defects. In this situation, which corresponds to the experiments found
in the literature, we show that there are several differences with the predictions based on an infinite sample size
analysis, notably, the usual anisotropy in electrical transport, which was shown to be reversed near the Bose-
glass transition, is found to be re-established by the finiteness of the sample. In addition, we also derive the
general anisotropic scaling relations for a continuous vortex transition in three dimensions which should be
applied, for example, in the case of a single family of parallel twin boundaries.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.63.212509 PACS number共s兲: 74.60.Ge, 74.62.Dh

Among the many efforts to understand the properties of columnar defects兲 and derive the scaling relations and the
the mixed state of the high-temperature superconductors with phase diagram for the case in which the sample has a finite
moderate anisotropy, the concept of glassy vortex states1–3 size L in the direction of the correlated defects.
stands as a very successful one. Several experiments4–6 have
ANISOTROPIC SCALING THEORY
probed the various predictions of the Bose-glass scaling
theory for correlated defects.3,7,8 Although they all agree in To make a scaling theory of a three-dimensional 共3D兲
the qualitative features, the numerical value of the character- continuous transition with spatial anisotropy we start by con-
istic exponents varies considerably between different experi- sidering three different characteristic lengths, l x (T), l y (T),
ments. In all cases the analysis was done by using the ex- and l z (T), which diverge at the transition with exponents ␯ i ,
pressions derived in Ref. 7 for infinite samples, however, the
l i ⬃ 兩 T⫺T BG 兩 ⫺ ␯ i . 共1兲
samples used in these experiments vary from thick films with
c-axis dimensions L of the order of a few microns to single An additional exponent z ⬘ is necessary to relate the correla-
crystals with L of the order of several tenths of microns; in tion time and length of fluctuations,
all cases the dimensions on the a and b directions are of the
order of a millimeter. This strong geometric anisotropy is ␶ ⬃l z ⬘ . 共2兲
due to two main facts: sample growth techniques 共like, for In order to relate the physical quantities to these correlation
example, flux-growth techniques for single crystals兲 rend lengths we follow the usual assumption of hyperscaling.2,3
plateletlike samples with a c-axis dimension which is an or- Accordingly, the free-energy density in the critical region
der of magnitude smaller than the other two, and second, due scales as
to energy considerations, the irradiation of samples with
heavy ions to produce columnar defects can be performed 1
f⬃ . 共3兲
successfully only in samples with size limited to a few tenths l xl yl z
of microns in the direction of irradiation. As a consequence, Our main interest is to describe the behavior of the transport
the experiments found in the literature were conducted in properties in the critical regime. The current and the electric
samples in which the direction of the correlated defects 共ei- field are defined through
ther twin boundaries or columnar defects兲 is smaller by an
order of magnitude with respect to the other two. The neces- ⳵f 1 ⳵A
sity to take into account finite-size effects is clearly demon- J⫽c , E⫽⫺ , 共4兲
⳵ A⬜ c ⳵t
strated from a series of experiments using the dc pseudo-
flux-transformer method9 which show that the velocity and since the gauge-invariance of Ginzburg-Landau free-
correlation length in samples with correlated defects 共both energy functional implies that the vector potential enters as
twin boundaries10,11 and columnar defects兲12 is of the order an inverse length, the critical behavior of A is presumably
of 100 ␮ m at temperatures of about a degree above the A i ⬃1/l i . This hypothesis, together with Eqs. 共3兲 and 共4兲,
Bose-glass transition temperature. allows us to write the J and E in terms of the three correla-
The objective of this paper is to provide experimentalists tion lengths and the correlation time,
with a Bose-glass scaling theory better suited for the experi- 1 1
mental situation. The structure of the paper is twofold; first J i⬃ , E i⬃ , 共5兲
we present a general scaling theory for a continuous vortex l jlk l i␶
transition in three dimensions with spatial anisotropy in all where the subindices i, j, and k, take the 共mutually exclud-
directions 共the case of a sample with planar defects for ex- ing兲 values 兵 x,y,z 其 . These dependencies of J and E allow us
ample兲. Second we consider the particular case in which only to write the relation between them in a homogeneous form,
one direction is different from the other two 共the case of i.e., using scale invariant 共and consequently temperature in-

0163-1829/2001/63共21兲/212509共4兲/$20.00 63 212509-1 ©2001 The American Physical Society

BRIEF REPORTS
dependent兲 variables. In this way the IV curves for all tem-
peratures within the critical region are represented by two
curves, one above and one below the transition. Considering
E and J collinear, the relation is given by
E i l i ␶ ⬃F ⫾
i
共 J i l j l k ␾ 0 /c 兲 ,
where ␾ 0 ⫽2 ␲ បc/e is added in order to make the argument
of the scaling function work done by the Lorentz force on a
critical fluctuation of size l j by l k . The physical interpreta-
tion of this variable is that the contribution to the dissipation
comes from vortex loops which extend in the plane j⫺k
perpendicular to the direction i of the current, of typical area
l j ⫻l k . The superindex i in the scaling functions F ⫾
i
is added
to take into account possible spatial anisotropies, due to cor-
related defects, and the privileged direction defined by the
applied magnetic field.
To take into account a small magnetic field applied per-
pendicularly, which would induce a tilting of the vortices, an
i critical exponents as the transition is approached. To de-
additional scaling variable should be added to F ⫾ . We fix z
the direction of the applied magnetic field, and x the direc-
tion of tilting. Since H⫽ ⳵ f / ⳵ B and B⫽“⫻A we get for H x
H x ⬃1/l x ,
and consequently the generalization of Eq. 共6兲 reads
E i l i ␶ ⬃F ⫾
i
共 J i l j l k ␾ 0 /c,H x l x / ␾ 0 兲 .
To this point we have considered a general continuous
transition in a system which can be described using a
Ginzburg-Landau free energy. In the particular case of the
Bose glass it can be shown that the four exponents are not
independent. First, since the system has isotropy in the plane
perpendicular to the direction of the defects we have ␯ x
⫽ ␯ y ⫽ ␯ . On the other hand, it has been shown that the vor-
tex system can be mapped into a fluid of interacting bosons
in two dimensions, where the trajectories of the vortices
along the direction of the applied magnetic field 共which we
have defined to be z in our case兲 are isomorphic to boson
world lines with imaginary time, kT corresponds to ប, and
the vortex line energy ␧ 1 to the mass.13 As it was shown in
Ref. 3, the uncertainty principle satisfied by the coordinate
and momentum variable in the quantum analogous leads to
the relation
l⬜
␧1 l ⬃kT,
lz ⬜
where the uncertainty in the momentum has been estimated
as ⌬p⬇␧ 1 (l⬜ /l z ); l⬜ is the correlation length in the x⫺y
plane. This leads in turn to the relation
l z ⬃l⬜2 ,
which implies ␯ z ⫽2 ␯ . Consequently, the relevant scaling
exponents of the Bose glass are only two: one spatial, ␯ , and
one temporal, z ⬘ . In particular the relation between the cur-
rent and the electric field 关Eq. 共8兲兴 becomes
E 兩 t 兩 ⫺ ␯ (z ⬘ ⫹1) ⫽F ⫾ 共 兩 t 兩 ⫺3 ␯ J ␾ 0 /c,H x 兩 t 兩 ⫺ ␯ / ␾ 0 兲 .
PHYSICAL REVIEW B 63 212509
FINITE-SIZE SCALING
Now we turn to the analysis of the finite-size effects. We
mentioned previously that the geometry of the samples used
in the majority of the experimental works is such that one
共6兲 axis 共the crystallographic c axis兲 is about an order of magni-
tude smaller than the other two. Consequently, we consider
the case in which the length of the sample in the z direction
共the direction of the correlated defects兲 is L and the a⫺b
plane (x,y directions兲 is effectively infinite. For L→⬁ the
system is three dimensional and we should recover the case
of the previous section. On the other hand, L⫽0 implies that
the system is two dimensional, the glass phase exists only at
T⫽0,2 and the scaling field related with H⬜ becomes irrel-
evant. When L has a finite value we are in a case in which
the system is neither two nor three dimensional in behavior.
The system still has a genuine phase transition at a finite
temperature, the value of which becomes a function of L, but
the critical fluctuations show a crossover from 3D to 2D
scribe this situation we need to consider a size dependence in
the expression of the free energy.
The homogeneity relation for the free energy of the Bose
共7兲 glass is generalized through the addition of a scaling field
␨ ⫽l z /L namely
F 共 t,H⬜ ,L 兲 ⫽t 4 ␯ F 共 1,H⬜ t ⫺ ␯ ,L ⫺1 t ⫺2 ␯ 兲 . 共12兲
共8兲
The scaling law for the tilt modulus is obtained through 共the
inverse of兲 the second derivative of Eq. 共12兲 with respect to
H⬜ ,
c 44共 t,H⬜,L 兲 ⫽t ⫺2 ␯ A⫾ 共 1,H⬜ t ⫺ ␯ ,L ⫺1 t ⫺2 ␯ 兲 . 共13兲
⫺1
We have said that for finite nonzero values of L the sys-
tem has a shift in the critical temperature 共i.e., t⫽0 is no
longer the transition temperature兲, consequently, for the tilt
modulus to show a singular behavior, A should have a sin-
gularity in ␨ ⫽L ⫺1 t ⫺2 ␯ at some critical point ␨ c ; in the
neighborhood of ␨ c it can be written
A共 ␨ 兲 ⫽Ac 共 1,H⬜ t ⫺ ␯ 兲关 1⫺ ␨ / ␨ c 兴 ⫺ ␯ 2D , 共14兲
where ␯ 2D is the critical exponent which corresponds to the
two-dimensional case (l⬜2D ⬃T ⫺ ␯ 2D ). This comes from the
fact that for any transition at t⫽0, that is, at any finite L,
only l⬜ diverges, since l z is limited by the sample size. On
the other hand, from Eq. 共14兲 we can infer the value of the
共9兲 critical temperature as a function of the thickness T BG (L),
given by15
T BG 共 L 兲 ⫽T BG 共 ⬁ 兲关 1⫺ 共 ␨ c L 兲 ⫺1/2␯ 兴 . 共15兲
Similarly, Eq. 共11兲 can be generalized to take into account
the finite size L of the z axis, and the generalization of Eq.
共10兲 共8兲 reads
E i l i ␶ ⬃F ⫾
i
共 J i l j l k ␾ 0 /c,H⬜ l⬜ / ␾ 0 ,l z /L 兲 . 共16兲
For ␨ →0 the system is three dimensional (d⫽3) and the
scaling relations of the previous section are recovered. The
same arguments applied to the scaling function A should be
共11兲 applied to the function F ⫾ ; that is, the parameter ␨ controls
212509-2
BRIEF REPORTS
FIG. 1. Phase diagram as a function of the perpendicular field
and the inverse sample thickness 1/L. As the system crosses from
three to two dimensional the cusp is gradually rounded off, until H⬜
becomes irrelevant in 2D; the transition temperature initially decays
as 1/2␯ 关Eq. 共15兲兴, and becomes smaller until it reaches the 2D
value of zero.
a dimensional crossover phenomenon, the singularities ␨ c of
F ⫺ should give information about the two-dimensional be-
havior, 关 F ⫺ ( ␨ )⬃( ␨ ⫺ ␨ c ) s 2D 兴, and the dependence of the
temperature with the thickness should be given by Eq. 共15兲.
Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the predicted phase dia-
gram using this argument.
For the transport properties in the linear regime we can
simplify Eq. 共16兲 making the ansatz F ⫹ i
(␣,␤,␥)
⬃ ␣ f ( ␤ )g ( ␥ ), that is, F is linear in the current and a prod-
i i
uct of functions of one scaling variable. This means that the
resistivity is
l jlk i
␳ i⬃ f 共 H x l x 兲 g i 共 l z /L 兲 . 共17兲
l i␶
In the limit ␨ →0 the functions g i should go to unity, so as to
recover the three-dimensional results, for ␨ →⬁ the length l z
should drop out of the resistivity. This means that
再
1/␨ if i⫽z
g i共 ␨ 兲 ⬃ , 共18兲
␨ if i⫽z
that is, g i ( ␣ ), behaves differently whether the resistivity is
parallel or perpendicular to the direction defined by the ap-
plied magnetic field and the correlated defects. Figure 2
shows a schematic view of the two different behaviors of
g i ( ␣ ).
Now we can consider the relation between ␳ x and ␳ z ,
since
1
M. P. A. Fisher, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1415 共1989兲.
2
D. S. Fisher, M. P. A. Fisher, and D. A. Huse, Phys. Rev. B 43,
130 共1991兲.
3 5
D. R. Nelson and V. M. Vinokur, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2398
共1992兲.
212509-3
PHYSICAL REVIEW B 63 212509
FIG. 2. Behavior of the finite-size scaling functions for the re-
sistivity.
l ylz x
␳ x⬃ g 共 l z /L 兲 , 共19兲
l x␶
l xl y z
␳ z⬃ g 共 l z /L 兲 , 共20兲
l z␶
the ratio ␳ z / ␳ x , which in an infinite sample and close to the
transition was shown14 to be opposite to the usual anisotropy
关since ␳ z / ␳ x ⬃(l x /l z ) 2 ⬃ 兩 t 兩 2 ␯ Ⰶ1], becomes in a finite
sample 共with ␨ ⬎1)
␳ z / ␳ x ⬃ 共 l x /L 兲 2 ⬃ 兩 t 兩 ⫺2 ␯ Ⰷ1, 共21兲
that is, the usual relation is recovered.
In conclusion, we have derived expressions for the critical
behavior of measurable quantities which are best suited for
the interpretation of actual experiments performed on geo-
metrically anisotropic samples. In particular we have given
an expression for the tilt modulus 关Eq. 共13兲兴, for the critical
temperature 关Eq. 共15兲兴, for the current-voltage response 关Eq.
共16兲兴, and for the in- and out-of-plane resistivity. We have
pointed out how the two-dimensional behavior can be seen
not only directly in the measured properties 共like the round-
ing off of the transition temperature cusp as a function of the
perpendicular field兲 but also in the singularities of the uni-
versal functions 关e.g., Eq. 共14兲兴, which give quantitative in-
formation about the two-dimensional critical exponents. Fi-
nally, we have showed that the predicted reversion of the
resistivity ratio near the transition is frustrated by finite-size
effects. In addition, an anisotropic scaling theory, suited, for
example, for an analysis of the case of a sample with a single
family of twin boundaries has been derived.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is a pleasure to acknowledge fruitful discussions with
D. R. Nelson. This work was supported by the Fundación
Antorchas.
4
T. K. Worthington, M. P. A. Fisher, D. A. Huse, J. Toner, A. D.
Marwick, T. Zabel, C. A. Feild, and F. Holtzberg, Physica C
153, 32 共1988兲.
H. Safar, J. Y. Coulter, M. P. Maley, S. Foltyn, P. Arendt, X. D.
Wu, and J. O. Willis, Phys. Rev. B 52, R9875 共1995兲.
BRIEF REPORTS
6 12
S. A. Grigera, E. Morré, E. Osquiguil, C. Balseiro, G. Nieva, and
F. de la Cruz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2348 共1999兲.
7
D. R. Nelson and V. M. Vinokur, Phys. Rev. B 48, 13 060 共1993兲.
8
See also, J. Lidmar and M. Wallin, Europhys. Lett. 47, 494
共1999兲; D. R. Nelson and V. M. Vinokur, Phys. Rev. B 61, 5917
共2000兲, which correct an error in Refs. 3 and 7.
9
E. F. Righi, S. A. Grigera, G. Nieva, and F. de la Cruz, Super-
cond. Rev. 2, 205 共1998兲.
10
H. Safar, P. L. Gammel, D. A. Huse, S. N. Majumdar, L. F.
Schneemeyer, D. J. Bishop, D. López, G. Nieva, and F.
de la Cruz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 1272 共1994兲.
11
D. López, G. Nieva, F. de la Cruz, H. J. Jensen, and D. O’Kane,
Phys. Rev. B 50, 9684 共1994兲.
212509-4
PHYSICAL REVIEW B 63 212509
E. F. Righi, S. A. Grigera, D. Lopez, G. Nieva, F. de la Cruz, L.
Civale, G. Pasquini, and P. Levy, Phys. Rev. B 55, 5663 共1997兲.
13
D. R. Nelson, in Vortex Line Fluctuations in Superconductors
from Elementary Quantum Mechanics, Vol. 415 of NATO Ad-
vanced Study Institute, Series C: Mathematical and Physical
Sciences 共Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1993兲.
14
D. R. Nelson and L. Radzihovsky, Phys. Rev. B 54, R6845
共1996兲.
15
It should be noted that this expression is derived around the three-
dimensional critical point, and consequently is valid for big val-
ues of L only. In the limit of L→0 the critical temperature, as
we said previously, tends to 0.