Stability of Driven Josephson Vortex Lattice in Layered Superconductors Revisited

TL;DR

This paper analytically investigates the stability of driven Josephson vortex lattices in layered superconductors, concluding that only the triangular lattice remains stable up to a critical velocity, with oblique lattices being inherently unstable.

Contribution

It provides a revised analytical understanding showing only the triangular vortex lattice is stable, contrasting previous findings of multiple stable configurations.

Findings

Only the triangular lattice is stable under certain conditions.

Stability is limited by a critical velocity.

Oblique lattices are inherently unstable.

Abstract

We analytically study stability of sliding lattice of Josephson vortices driven by a transport current in the stack direction in strong in-plane magnetic field. In contrast to recent findings we obtain that there are no diverse configurations of stable vortex lattices, and, hence, the stable sliding vortex lattice can not be selected by boundary conditions. We find that only the triangular (rhombic) lattice can be stable, its stability being limited by a critical velocity value. At higher velocities there are no simple stable lattices with single flux line per unit cell. Oblique sliding lattices are found to be never stable. Instability of such lattices is revealed beyond the linear approximation in perturbations of the lattice.