Freezing transition of the vortex liquid in anisotropic superconductors

TL;DR

This paper models the solid-liquid transition of pancake vortices in anisotropic superconductors using density functional theory, showing good agreement with experimental phase diagrams and analyzing melting criteria validity.

Contribution

It applies density functional theory to vortex matter, providing detailed predictions of the phase transition and validating melting criteria against experimental data.

Findings

Good agreement with experimental phase diagrams.

Magnetic induction jump matches experimental observations.

Melting and freezing criteria are validated for first order transitions.

Abstract

We study the solid-liquid transition of a model of pancake vortices in laminar superconductors using a density functional theory of freezing. The physical properties of the system along the melting line are discussed in detail. We show that there is a very good agreement with experimental data in the shape and position of the first order transition in the phase diagram and in the magnitude and temperature dependence of the magnetic induction jump at the transition. We analyze the validity of the Lindemann melting criterion and the Hansen-Verlet freezing criterion. Both criteria are shown to be good to predict the phase diagram in the region where a first order phase transition is experimentally observed.