Electrical transport, magnetic, and structural properties of the vortex lattice of V₃Si in the vicinity of the peak effect

The peak effect in critical current density J_c is investigated by studying the flux dynamics in V_3Si using bulk magnetometry, small-angle neutron scattering, and transport measurements on clean single-crystal samples from the same ingot. For a field-cooled history, well-defined structure in the vortex lattice was found for fields and temperatures (H,T) below the peak-effect line H_P(T); above this line, the structure disappeared. History-dependent, metastable disorder is found only for (H,T) below H_P(T) but the vortex system is reproducibly re-ordered either by field-cooling or a low-frequency, pulsed "shaking" transport current. The latter is shown to attain Bardeen-Stephen flux flow. In addition, flux flow is observed at H_P(T) at high current levels. The results, though novel, support the traditional picture of H_P(T) as an order-disorder transition due to the competition between elasticity and pinning.