2002/09/06 by E. W. Carlson, A. H. Castro Neto, David Campbell +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.90.087001
arxiv created 2002/09/06 · openalex publication_date 2003/02/25 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In an isotropic type II superconductor in a moderate magnetic field, the transition to the normal state occurs by vortex lattice melting. In certain anisotropic cases, the vortices acquire elongated cross sections and interactions. Systems of anisotropic, interacting constituents generally exhibit liquid crystalline phases. We examine the possibility of a two step melting in homogeneous type II superconductors with anisotropic superfluid stiffness from a vortex lattice into first a vortex smectic and then a vortex nematic at high temperature and magnetic field. We find that fluctuations of the ordered phase favor an instability to an intermediate smectic-A in the absence of intrinsic pinning.