Vortex matter in layered superconductors without Josephson coupling: numerical simulations within a mean-field approach

Abstract

We study vortex matter in layered superconductors in the limit of zero Josephson coupling. The long range of the interaction between pancake vortices in the c-direction allows us to employ a mean-field method: all attractive inter-layer interactions are reduced to an effective substrate potential, which pancakes experience in addition to the same-layer pancake repulsion. We perform numerical simulations of this mean-field model using two independent numerical implementations with different simulation methods (Monte-Carlo sampling and Langevin molecular dynamics). The substrate potential is updated self-consistently from the averaged pancake density. Depending on temperature, this potential converges to a periodic profile (crystal) or vanishes (liquid). We compute thermodynamic properties of the system, such as the melting line, the instability line of the crystal, and the entropy jump across the melting transition. The simulation results are in good agreement with approximate analytical calculations.

arXiv comment12 pages, including 11 figures, RevTeX4

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• The Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Type II superconductors in magnetic field
• On the magnetization of two-dimensional superconductors
• Flux melting in BSCCO: Incorporating both electromagnetic and Josephson couplings
• Nonlinear Dynamics and Dissipation of a Curvilinear Vortex Driven by a Strong Time-Dependent Meissner Current
• Density functional theory of vortex lattice melting in layered superconductors: a mean-field--substrate approach
• Dynamically Induced Locking and Unlocking Transitions in Driven Layered Systems with Quenched Disorder
• Molecular Dynamics of pancake vortices with realistic interactions: Observing the vortex lattice melting transition
• Decoupling and Depinning II: Flux lattices in disordered layered superconductors
• Surface melting of the vortex lattice
• Decoupling Transition I. Flux Lattices in Pure Layered Superconductors
• Effect of the intrinsic Josephson coupling on the pancake lattice in layered superconductors