Two coexisting vortex phases in the peak effect regime in a superconductor

The critical current in the vortex phase of a type-II superconductor such as NbSe2 displays a striking anomaly in the vicinity of the superconductor-to-normal-metal transition. Instead of going to zero smoothly, it rebounds to a sharp and pronounced maximum, just before vanishing at the transition. This counter-intuitive phenomenon, known as the peak effect, has remained an unsolved problem for 40 years. Here we use a scanning a.c. Hall microscope to visualize the real-space distribution of the critical current in NbSe2. We show that in the peak-effect regime two distinct vortex-matter phases with intrinsically different pinning strengths coexist on a macroscopic scale. The composition of the two-phase mixture and the transformation of one phase into another are responsible for the history effects and anomalous voltage response commonly seen when external parameters such as temperature, magnetic field or transport current are varied. We argue that the observed phase coexistence is, in fact, the hallmark of a disorder-driven non-thermal phase transition.