Defective Vortex Lattices in Layered Superconductors with Both Point and Correlated Pins

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of vortex lattices in layered superconductors with point and correlated pinning, revealing weak interlayer superconductivity and specific heat anomalies through duality analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a duality analysis of the XY model to understand vortex phases in layered superconductors with complex pinning.

Findings

Weak Josephson coupling leads to entangled vortex solids with weak interlayer superconductivity.

Vortex liquid states show an inverted specific heat anomaly as a precursor to superconductivity.

The study characterizes the transition between vortex solid and liquid phases in the presence of disorder.

Abstract

The mixed phase of layered superconductors with no magnetic screening is studied through a partial duality analysis of the corresponding XY model in the presence of random pinning centers. Sufficiently weak Josephson coupling between adjacent layers results in an entangled vortex solid that exhibits weak superconductivity across layers. The corresponding vortex liquid state shows an inverted specific heat anomaly that is a precursor to the weak superconductor.