Real space visualization of thermal fluctuations in a triangular flux-line lattice

The temperature-dependent properties of a triangular flux-line lattice (FLL) in the low-flux density regime were investigated by evaluating the imaged flux-line (FL) size and the lattice regularity observed in real space utilizing magnetic force microscopy (MFM). At low temperatures, pinning by randomly distributed point defects in the anisotropic type-II superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta results in curved FLs and lateral disorder within the FLL (Bragg glass). Above 30 K, depinning of pancake vortices (PVs) leads to straightening of FLs and a better-ordered lattice. Evaluation of the temperature-dependent imaged FL size allows us to determine the stiffness of the potential, in which FLs in the lattice are caged due to mutual repulsion between them. At 54.1 K, far below melting temperatures reported so far, thermal fluctuations plus the lateral force exerted by the scanning tip facilitate decoupling of PVs near the surface and the image contrast exhibit a liquid-like behavior. Our analysis demonstrates the ability of MFM to obtain three-dimensional information on the arrangement of PVs.