Elasticity and melting of vortex crystals in anisotropic superconductors: Beyond the continuum regime.

The elastic moduli of vortex crystals in anisotropic superconductors are frequently involved in the investigation of their phase diagram and transport properties. We provide a detailed analysis of the harmonic eigenvalues (normal modes) of the vortex lattice for general values of the magnetic field...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Miguel López, María del Carmen, Kardar, M.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2000
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/10870
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/10870
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Superconductivitat
Elasticitat
Superconductors
Anisotropia
Superconductivity
Elasticity
Anisotropy
Descripción
Sumario:The elastic moduli of vortex crystals in anisotropic superconductors are frequently involved in the investigation of their phase diagram and transport properties. We provide a detailed analysis of the harmonic eigenvalues (normal modes) of the vortex lattice for general values of the magnetic field strength, going beyond the elastic continuum regime. The detailed behavior of these wave-vector-dependent eigenvalues within the Brillouin zone (BZ), is compared with several frequently used approximations that we also recalculate. Throughout the BZ, transverse modes are less costly than their longitudinal counterparts, and there is an angular dependence which becomes more marked close to the zone boundary. Based on these results, we propose an analytic correction to the nonlocal continuum formulas which fits quite well the numerical behavior of the eigenvalues in the London regime. We use this approximate expression to calculate thermal fluctuations and the full melting line (according to Lindeman's criterion) for various values of the anisotropy parameter.