2002/12/31 by Toby Joseph, Chandan Dasgupta
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Commensurability (mathematics) #Condensed matter physics #Critical current #Geometry #Ground state #Magnetic field #Magnetic properties of thin films #Magnetization #Mathematics #Mechanics #Penetration depth #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Pinning force #Quantum mechanics #Superconducting Materials and Applications #Superconductivity #Vortex #Vortex state #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.67.214514
12 pages, 19 figures, submitted for publication
arxiv created 2003/01/13 · openalex publication_date 2003/06/16 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Ground-state properties of a two-dimensional system of superconducting vortices in the presence of a periodic array of strong pinning centers are studied analytically and numerically. The ground states of the vortex system at different filling ratios are obtained using a simple geometric argument under the assumption that the penetration depth is much smaller than the spacing of the pin lattice. The results of this calculation are confirmed by numerical studies in which simulated annealing is used to locate the ground states of the vortex system. The zero-temperature equilibrium magnetization as a function of the applied field is obtained by numerically calculating the energy of the ground state for a large number of closely spaced filling ratios. The results show interesting commensurability effects such as plateaus in the B\ensuremath-H diagram at simple fractional filling ratios.