2004/12/31 by Paolo Moretti, M. Carmen Miguel, M. -Carmen Miguel +1 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Superconducting Materials and Applications #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.stat-mech #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.72.014505
12 pages, 6 figures. Revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B
arxiv created 2005/06/01 · openalex publication_date 2005/07/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We explore the statistical properties of grain boundaries in the vortex polycrystalline phase of type-II superconductors. Treating grain boundaries as arrays of dislocations interacting through linear elasticity, we show that self-interaction of a deformed grain boundary is equivalent to a nonlocal long-range surface tension. This affects the pinning properties of grain boundaries, which are found to be less rough than isolated dislocations. The presence of grain boundaries has an important effect on the transport properties of type-II superconductors as we show by numerical simulations: our results indicate that the critical current is higher for a vortex polycrystal than for a regular vortex lattice. Finally, we discuss the possible role of grain boundaries in vortex lattice melting. Through a phenomenological theory we show that melting can be preceded by an intermediate polycrystalline phase.