Cross correlation of thermal flux noise in layered superconductors

Cross correlation in the magnetic flux noise due to thermally activated movements of pancake vortices in strongly anisotropic layered superconductors has been investigated theoretically. It has been shown that there exists a crossover frequency, inversely proportional to the sample thickness, below which vortices behave as rigid rods and their ends move coherently on the opposite sides of the sample. At low frequencies, the cross-correlation spectrum is identical to the spectrum measured at each side of the sample. The cross-correlation spectrum demonstrates two regimes of behavior, separated by a characteristic frequency which depends on the geometry of the flux measuring loop. At high frequencies above the crossover frequency, the excitations of the elastic lattice modes lead to exponentially vanishing oscillations of the cross-correlation spectra. Pancake movements became incoherent and the correlation function decays, accompanied by the oscillations. The oscillations are most pronounced for the separation between pickup loops smaller than the sample thickness. In a typical experimental configuration with pickup loops located on the sample surface, the oscillations constitute only small perturbations to the dominating powerlike decay of the correlation function. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society