Nonlinear electric field effects at a continuous mott-hubbard transition

We characterize the non-Ohmic portion of the conductivity at temperatures T<1 K in the highly correlated transition metal chalcogenide Ni(S,Se)(2). Pressure tuning of the T = 0 metal-insulator transition reveals the influence of the quantum critical point and permits a direct determination of the dynamical critical exponent z = 2.7(+0.3)(-0.4). Within the framework of finite temperature scaling, we find that the spatial correlation length exponent nu and the conductivity exponent &mgr; differ.

Vortex flow and transverse flux screening at the bose glass transition

We study the vortex phase diagram in untwinned YBCO crystals with columnar defects. These randomly distributed defects are expected to induce a "Bose glass" phase of localized vortices exhibiting a vanishing resistance and Meissner effect for magnetic fields H( perpendicular) transverse to the columns. We directly observe the transverse Meissner effect using a Hall probe array. As predicted, the Meissner state breaks down at temperatures T(s) that decrease linearly as H( perpendicular) increases. However, T(s) lies far below the conventional melting temperature T(m) determined by a vanishing resistivity, suggesting a regime where vortices are effectively localized even when rotated off the columnar defects.