2001/06/14 by Chandan Dasgupta, Oriol T. Valls · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Magnetic properties of thin films #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.87.257002
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 257002 (2001). · Four pages, 3 Figures
arxiv created 2001/06/14 · openalex publication_date 2001/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The melting of the vortex lattice in highly anisotropic, layered superconductors with commensurate, periodic columnar pins is studied in a geometry where magnetic field and columnar pins are normal to the layers. Thermodynamic properties and equilibrium density distributions are obtained from numerical minimization of an appropriate free-energy functional. We find a line of first-order transitions that ends at a critical point as the pin concentration is increased. We quantitatively determine the location of this critical point and show that it is experimentally accessible.