Dynamic Melting and Decoupling of the Vortex Lattice in Layered Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamic phase transitions of vortex lattices in layered superconductors, revealing how driving currents influence melting and decoupling, with a unified theoretical approach supported by simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a modified Lindemann criterion to unify equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase transition analyses in vortex lattices.

Findings

Temperature shifts of transitions scale inversely with driving current

The phenomenological model quantitatively estimates transition locations

Simulation results support the theoretical approach

Abstract

The dynamic phase diagram of vortex lattices driven in disorder is calculated in two and three dimensions. A modified Lindemann criterion for the fluctuations of the distance of neighboring vortices is used, which unifies previous analytic approaches to the equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase transitions. The temperature shifts of the dynamic melting and decoupling transitions are found to scale inversely proportional to large driving currents. A comparison with two-dimensional simulations shows that this phenomenological approach can provide quantitative estimate for the location of these transitions.