The Structure of the Vortex Liquid at the Surface of a Layered Superconductor
arXiv:cond-mat/9710017 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.58.8755
Abstract
A density-functional approach is used to calculate the inhomogeneous vortex density distribution in the flux liquid phase at the planar surface of a layered superconductor, where the external magnetic field is perpendicular to the superconducting layers and parallel to the surface. The interactions with image vortices are treated within a mean field approximation as a functional of the vortex density. Near the freezing transition strong vortex density fluctuations are found to persist far into the bulk liquid. We also calculate the height of the Bean-Livingston surface barrier.
8 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures