INTERLAYER VORTICES AND EDGE DISLOCATIONS IN HIGH TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTORS

TL;DR

This paper investigates the interaction between edge dislocations and magnetic interlayer vortices in high-temperature superconductors, revealing asymmetric current distributions and infinite binding energy for certain vortex configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a variational approach to analyze vortex-dislocation interactions within the Lawrence-Doniach model, including the novel prediction of spontaneous magnetic half-vortices.

Findings

Binding energy of vortex and dislocation varies with coupling sign.

Asymmetric current distribution around bound vortices.

Existence of infinite binding energy for half-vortices.

Abstract

The interaction of an edge dislocation made of half the superconducting plane with a magnetic interlayer vortex is considered within the framework of the Lawrence-Doniach model with negative as well as positive Josephson interlayer coupling. In the first case the binding energy of the vortex and the dislocation has been calculated by employing a variational procedure. The current distribution around the bound vortex turns out to be asymmetric. In the second case the dislocation carries a spontaneous magnetic half-vortex, whose binding energy with the dislocation turns out to be infinite. The half-vortex energy has been calculated by the same variational procedure. Implications of the possible presence of such half-vortices for the properties of high temperature superconductors are discussed.