Long-Range Order of Vortex Lattices Pinned by Point Defects in Layered Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vortex lattices in layered superconductors with point defects develop long-range order, revealing vortex-glass formation and the limits of vortex lattice stability through duality analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a duality analysis of the frustrated XY model to study vortex lattice ordering and identifies the magnetic-field scale limiting vortex lattice stability.

Findings

Vortex-glass order forms from the vortex liquid across many layers.

The Josephson coupling sets an upper bound for vortex lattice stability.

Vortex lattice phases are unstable beyond a certain magnetic field scale.

Abstract

How the vortex lattice orders at long range in a layered superconductor with weak point pinning centers is studied through a duality analysis of the corresponding frustrated XY model. Vortex-glass order emerges out of the vortex liquid across a macroscopic number of weakly coupled layers in perpendicular magnetic field as the system cools down. Further, the naive magnetic-field scale determined by the Josephson coupling between adjacent layers is found to serve as an upperbound for the stability of any possible conventional vortex lattice phase at low temperature in the extreme type-II limit.