Abstract.
We review the use of superconductors as a playground for the experimental study of front roughening and avalanches. Using the magneto-optical technique, the spatial distribution of the vortex density in the sample is monitored as a function of time. The roughness and growth exponents corresponding to the vortex `landscape' are determined and compared to the exponents that characterize the avalanches in the framework of Self-Organized Criticality. For those situations where a thermo-magnetic instability arises, an analytical non-linear and non-local model is discussed, which is found to be consistent to great detail with the experimental results. On anisotropic substrates, the anisotropy regularizes the avalanches.
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Wijngaarden, R., Welling, M., Aegerter, C. et al. Avalanches and Self-Organized Criticality in superconductors. Eur. Phys. J. B 50, 117–122 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00063-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00063-7