I-V characteristics of the vortex state in Mg B2 thin films

The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of various Mg B2 films have been studied at different magnetic fields parallel to the c axis. At fields μ0 H between 0 and 5 T, vortex liquid-glass transitions were found in the I-V isotherms. Consistently, the I-V curves measured at different temperatures show a scaling behavior in the framework of quasi-two-dimension (quasi-2D) vortex-glass theory. However, at μ0 H≥5 T, a finite dissipation was observed down to the lowest temperature here, T=1.7 K, and the I-V isotherms did not scale in terms of any known scaling law, of any dimensionality. We suggest that this may be caused by a mixture of σ band vortices and π band quasiparticles. Interestingly, the I-V curves at zero magnetic field can still be scaled according to the quasi-2D vortex-glass formalism, indicating an equivalent effect of self-field due to persistent current and applied magnetic field.