Experimental investigations of the critical vortex dynamics in extreme type-II superconductors with controlled static disorder

Experimental investigations of the vortex dynamics in high-temperature and conventional amorphous superconductors reveal universal critical phenomena which are associated with various phase transitions in the vortex systems with different types of static disorder. Evidence for second-order vortex-glass, Bose-glass and splayed-glass transitions are manifested by the universal critical exponents and scaling functions via measurements of ac and dc transport properties, ac magnetic susceptibility, ac third-harmonic transmissivity, and microwave surface impedance. In contrast, current-induced effects in the weak pinning limit result in novel non-equilibrium vortex dynamics which conceal the direct detection of the order of The thermodynamic vortex-solid melting transition with electrical transport measurements.