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Thin film magnetic heterostructures with competing interfacial coupling and Zeeman energy pro- vide a fertile ground to study phase transition between different equilibrium states as a function of external magnetic field and temperature. A rare-earth (RE) / transition metal (TM) ferro- magnetic multilayer is a classic example where the magnetic state is determined by a competition between the Zeeman energy and antiferromagnetic interfacial exchange coupling energy. Techno- logically, such structures offer the possibility to engineer the macroscopic magnetic response by tuning the microscopic interactions between the layers. We have performed an exhaustive study of a nickel/gadolinium system by using the element-specific measurement technique x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, and determined the full magnetic state diagrams as a function of temperature and magnetic layer thickness. We explain our result based on a modified Stoner-Wohlfarth formal- ism and provide evidence of a thickness-dependent phase transition to a magnetic fan state which is critical in understanding magnetoresistance effects in RE/TM systems. The results provide im- portant insight for spintronics and superconducting spintronics where engineering tunable magnetic inhomogeneity is key for certain applications.

We use scanning SQUID microscopy to investigate the behavior of vortices in the presence of twin boundaries in the pnictide superconductor Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2. We show that the vortices avoid pinning on twin boundaries. Individual vortices move in a preferential way when manipulated with the SQUID: they tend to not cross a twin boundary, but rather to move parallel to it. This behavior can be explained by the observation of enhanced superfluid density on twin boundaries in Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2. The observed repulsion from twin boundaries may be a mechanism for enhanced critical currents observed in twinned samples in pnictides and other superconductors.

We measured the effects of periodic surface holes, created using a focused ion beam, on the phase diagram of the vortex matter in high-T_c Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta} crystals. Differential magneto-optical measurements show that the irreversibility line is shifted to higher fields and temperatures, with respect to the pristine melting line. The irreversibility line displays weak field dependence between integer matching fields indicating multiple-flux-quanta pinning at holes. We find reduced equilibrium compressibility of the vortex matter at integer matching fields, which is strong evidence for the existence of thermodynamic Mott insulator phases. Shaking with a transverse ac field surprisingly reveals first-order melting that is not shifted with respect to the pristine melting line and that seems to occur within the Mott insulator regions. This melting is understood to be the first-order transition in the bulk of the crystal beneath the surface holes. The transition is visible at the surface, despite the reduced vortex compressibility in the top layer., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Physical Review B

We report scanning Hall probe microscopy of highly underdoped superconducting YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x} with T_c ranging from 5 to 15 K which showed distinct flux bundles with less than one superconducting flux quantum (Phi_0) through the sample surface. The sub-Phi_0 features occurred more frequently for lower T_c, were more mobile than conventional vortices, and occurred more readily when the sample was cooled with an in-plane field component. We show that these features are consistent with kinked stacks of pancake vortices., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review B

It is widely believed that the perovskite Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ is an unconventional superconductor with broken time reversal symmetry. It has been predicted that superconductors with broken time reversal symmetry should have spontaneously generated supercurrents at edges and domain walls. We have done careful imaging of the magnetic fields above Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ single crystals using scanning Hall bar and SQUID microscopies, and see no evidence for such spontaneously generated supercurrents. We use the results from our magnetic imaging to place upper limits on the spontaneously generated supercurrents at edges and domain walls as a function of domain size. For a single domain, this upper limit is below the predicted signal by two orders of magnitude. We speculate on the causes and implications of the lack of large spontaneous supercurrents in this very interesting superconducting system., Comment: 9 pages

We have measured the dynamics of individual magnetic fluxoids entering and leaving thin film, photolithographically patterned rings of underdoped high-temperature superconductor BSCCO using a variable sample temperature scanning SQUID microscope. These measurements can be understood within a phenomenological model in which the fluxoid number changes by thermal activation of a Pearl vortex in the ring wall. We place upper limits on the "vison" binding energy in these samples from these measurements., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Here we reply to Farid's comment., Comment: 2 pages, LaTeX

The Intlerlayer Josephson coupling between the planes of Tl2Ba2CuO6 was determined using infrared spectroscopy and magnetic flux vortex imaging. These methods give a consistent value of $\omega_J$= 28 cm$^{-1}$ which, when combined with the condensation energy produces a discrepancy of at least an order of magnitude with deductions based on the interlayer tunneling model., Comment: 5 pages, article, epsf, 3 encapsulated postscript figures