Hyperuniform vortex patterns at the surface of type-II superconductors

Hyperuniform material systems with vanishing infinite-wavelength

density fluctuations are attracting attention due to their unique

physical properties. In these systems, the density of constituents

is homogeneous at large scales, as in a crystal, although they can

be disordered like a liquid. Hyperuniformity might be affected by

the disorder unavoidably present in the host medium where

constituents are nucleated. We use vortex matter in superconductors

as a model elastic system to study  how planar disorder impacts the

otherwise hyperuniform structure nucleated in samples with weak

point disorder. Planes of defects suppress hyperuniformity in an

anisotropic fashion: While in the transverse direction to defects

the long-wavelength density fluctuations are non-vanishing, in the

longitudinal direction they are smaller and the system can

eventually recover hyperuniformity for sufficiently thick samples.

Our findings stress the need of considering the nature of disorder

and thickness-dependent dimensional crossovers in the search for

novel hyperuniform materials.