We report history-dependent critical currents across the disordered solid to Bragg glass transition occurring in the low-field region in ${\mathrm{V}}_3\mathrm{Si}$ and ${\mathrm{NdBa}}_2{\mathrm{Cu}}_3{\mathrm{O}}_{7-x}$ single crystals. This is in addition to the history dependence usually observed near the high-field Bragg-glass–disordered-solid transition. It is further shown that the metastable frozen-in disordered vortex matter coexists with the ordered phase in the entire Bragg glass region. We conclude that the amount of the metastable disordered phase prior to the high-field Bragg-glass–disordered-solid transition is crucial in nucleating further growth of the disordered phase near the transition. This mechanism results in the onset of the high-field peak to occur at lower fields when the frozen-in disordered phase prior to the transition is larger.

• Received 2 August 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.65.094507