Driven disordered periodic media with an underlying structural phase transition

Abstract

We study the nonequilibrium steady states of a crystal whose ground state can be tuned through a square-triangular transition. Driving such a system across a quenched random background yields a complex sequence of dynamical states. These include plastic flow states, anisotropic hexatics, dynamically stabilized triangle and square phases, and intermediate regimes of phase coexistence with anomalously slow dynamics. Such states should be observable in transport experiments on the mixed phase of several superconductors which exhibit related structural transitions. They may also be accessible in similar experiments on adsorbed monolayer colloids with tunable interactions.