Low-Field Phase Diagram of Layered Superconductors: The Role of Electromagnetic Coupling

Abstract

We determine the position and shape of the melting line in a layered superconductor taking the electromagnetic coupling between layers into account. In the limit of vanishing Josephson coupling we obtain a new generic reentrant low-field melting line. Finite Josephson coupling pushes the melting line to higher temperatures and fields and a new line shape $B_{\mathrm{m}}\propto (1-T/T_c{)}^{3/2}$ is found. We construct the low-field phase diagram including melting and decoupling lines and discuss various experiments in the light of our new results.

12 pages, 1 figure attached as compressed and uuencoded postscript