title: Critical behavior at a dynamic vortex insulator-to-metal transition.
abstract: An array of superconducting islands placed on a normal metal film offers a tunable realization of nanopatterned superconductivity. This system enables investigation of the nature of competing vortex states and phase transitions between them. A square array creates the eggcrate potential in which magnetic field-induced vortices are frozen into a vortex insulator. We observed a vortex insulator-vortex metal transition driven by the applied electric current and determined critical exponents that coincided with those for thermodynamic liquid-gas transition. Our findings offer a comprehensive description of dynamic critical behavior and establish a deep connection between equilibrium and nonequilibrium phase transitions.
authors.affiliation: MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands. Rome International Center for Materials Science Superstripes (RICMASS), Via dei Sabelli 119A, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poccia
authors.affiliation: A. V. Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia. Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Tatyana I
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Baturina
authors.affiliation: MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Coneri
authors.affiliation: MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cor G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Molenaar
authors.affiliation: MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands.
authors.forename: X Renshaw
authors.initials: XR
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK.
authors.forename: Ginestra
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bianconi
authors.affiliation: MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brinkman
authors.affiliation: MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hilgenkamp
authors.affiliation: MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow District, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexander A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Golubov
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60637, USA. vinokour@anl.gov.
authors.forename: Valerii M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Vinokur