Persistence of the intrinsic transition in the vortex matter of disordered BSCCO:2212 crystals

The first order melting transition (FOT) in vortex matter of clean Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 crystals, is identified by a discontinuity in the reversible magnetization, which extends to the low temperature (irreversible) regime in the form of a jump in the energy barrier vs. current, U(J), variation. Heavy ion irradiation disorders the vortex lattice, enhances flux pinning, and is believed to suppress the FOT. However, in underdoped samples, detailed measurements of magnetic relaxation by the Hall-array technique reveal the existence of a discontinuous jump in the U(J) curve precisely at the location of FOT of pristine crystal