Vortex interactions and thermally induced crossover from type-I to type-II superconductivity

J. Hove, S. Mo, and A. Sudbø
Phys. Rev. B 66, 064524 – Published 29 August 2002
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Abstract

We have computed the effective interaction between vortices in the Ginzburg-Landau model from large-scale Monte Carlo simulations, taking thermal fluctuations of matter fields and gauge fields fully into account close to the critical temperature. We find a change, in the form of what appears to be a crossover, from an attractive to a repulsive effective vortex interactions in an intermediate range of Ginzburg-Landau parameters κ[0.76,1]/2 upon increasing the temperature in the superconducting state. This corresponds to a thermally induced crossover from type-I to type-II superconductivity around a temperature TCr(κ), which we map out in the vicinity of the metal-to-superconductor transition. In order to see this crossover, it is essential to include amplitude fluctuations of the matter field, in addition to phase-fluctuations and gauge-field fluctuations. We present a simple physical picture of the crossover, and relate it to observations in Ta and Nb elemental superconductors which have low-temperature values of κ in the relevant range.

  • Received 13 February 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.66.064524

©2002 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

J. Hove*, S. Mo, and A. Sudbø

  • Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

  • *Electronic address: Joakim.Hove@phys.ntnu.no
  • Electronic address: Sjur.Mo@phys.ntnu.no
  • Electronic address: Asle.Sudbo@phys.ntnu.no

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Vol. 66, Iss. 6 — 1 August 2002

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