L-5

Goal : This is the first lecture about the dynamics of a disordered system. We will see that different systems display pinning until a critical threshold. We will revisit Larkin arguments and discuss the spectrum of excitation of the instabilities.

Pinning and depininng of a disordered material

In the first lectures we saw that a disorder system can be trapped in deep energy states and form a glass. Today we will see that it can be also pinned and resist external deformation. Indeed disorder is at the origin of a complex energy landscape characterized by many minima (more or less deep), maxima and saddle points. An external force tilts this multidimensional landscape in a direction, but local minima survives until a finite threshold that unveils spectacular critical dynamics.

Experiments

We will discuss two examples of transition induced by pinning:

• The depinning transition: interfaces pinned by impurities are ubiquitous and range from magnetic domain walls to crack fronts, from dislocations in crystals or vortices in superconductors. Above a critical force, interfaces depin, their motion is intermittent and a Barkhausen noise is detected.

• The yielding transition: Everyday amorphous materials such as mayonnaise, toothpaste or foams display a behaviour intermediate between solid and liquid. They deform at small stress (as a solid) and flow  at large stress (as a liquid). In between we observe intermittent plastic events.

The Larkin model and the existence of a finite critical force

Consider a more realistic model where the finite size of the impurities is taken into account.