Vortices in layered superconductors with columnar pins: A density functional study

Abstract

We use numerical minimization of a model free energy functional to study the effects of columnar pinning centers on the structure and thermodynamics of a system of pancake vortices in the mixed phase of highly anisotropic layered superconductors. The magnetic field and the columnar pins are assumed to be perpendicular to the layers. Our methods allow us to study in detail the density distribution of vortices in real space. We present results for the dependence of the average number of vortices trapped at a pinning center on temperature and pinning strength, and for the effective interaction between nearby pinned vortices arising from short-range correlations in the vortex liquid. For a commensurate, periodic array of pinning centers, we find a line of first order vortex lattice melting transitions in the temperature $T$ vs. pin concentration $c$ plane, which terminates at an experimentally accessible critical point as $c$ is increased. Beyond this point, the transition is replaced by a crossover. Our results should also apply, with little change, to thin-film superconductors with strong point pinning.

15 pages including 17 Figures. Higher resolution gray scale plots available from authors

References in corpus (4)

• Commensurate and Incommensurate Vortex Lattice Melting in Periodic Pinning Arrays
• Simulation of Flux Lines with Columnar Pins: Bose Glass and Entangled Liquids
• Phase Diagram Of A Hard-sphere System In A Quenched Random Potential: A Numerical Study
• Vortex lattice melting in layered superconductors with periodic columnar pins

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• Melting and structure of the vortex solid in strongly anisotropic layered superconductors with random columnar pins
• Phase diagram of the vortex system in layered superconductors with strong columnar pinning
• Vortex states in 2D superconductor at high magnetic field in a periodic pinning potential
• Phase diagram of vortex matter in layered superconductors with random point pinning
• Phase diagram of randomly pinned vortex matter in layered superconductors: dependence on the details of the point pinning
• Vortex phase diagram in BSCCO with damage tracks created by 30 MeV fullerene irradiation
• Structure and Magnetization of Two-Dimensional Vortex Arrays in the Presence of Periodic Pinning
• Non-classical Rotational Inertia in a Two-dimensional Bosonic Solid Containing Grain Boundaries
• The phase diagram of vortex matter in layered superconductors with tilted columnar pinning centers