Collective pinning of the vortex lattice by columnar defects in layered superconductors

Abstract

The mixed phase of layered superconductors with no magnetic screening is studied through a partial duality analysis of the corresponding frustrated XY model in the presence of random columnar pins. A small fraction of pinned vortex lines is assumed. Thermally induced plastic creep of the vortex lattice within isolated layers results in an intermediate Bose glass phase that exhibits weak superconductivity across layers in the limit of weak Josephson coupling. The correlation volume of the vortex lattice is estimated in the strongly-coupled Bose-glass regime at lower temperature. In the absence of additional point pins, no peak effect in the critical current density is predicted to occur on this basis as a function of the Josephson coupling. Also, the phase transition observed recently inside of the vortex-liquid phase of high-temperature superconductors pierced by sparse columnar defects is argued to be a sign of dimensional cross-over.

16 pages, 1 figure, account of transition to ``nanoliquid'' in BSCCO, to appear in PRB

References in corpus (7)

• Melting of 'porous' vortex matter
• First order phase transition from the vortex liquid to an amorphous solid
• Vortex nanoliquid in high-temperature superconductors
• Bragg-Bose glass phase in vortex states of high-$T_{\mathrm{c}}$ superconductors with sparse and weak columnar defects
• Critical Behavior of Frustrated Josephson Junction Arrays with Bond Disorder
• Defective Vortex Lattices in Layered Superconductors with Point Pins at the Extreme Type-II Limit
• Defective Vortex Lattices in Layered Superconductors with Both Point and Correlated Pins

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Phase diagram of the vortex system in layered superconductors with strong columnar pinning
• Collective pinning of imperfect vortex lattices by material line defects in extreme type-II superconductors
• Multiple Changes of Order of the Vortex Melting Transition in BSCCO with Dilute Columnar Defects
• Critical Current of Type-II Superconductors in a Broken Bose Glass State
• Long-Range Order of Vortex Lattices Pinned by Point Defects in Layered Superconductors