title: Vortex lattice melting in layered superconductors with periodic columnar pins.
abstract: The melting of the vortex lattice in highly anisotropic, layered superconductors with commensurate, periodic columnar pins is studied in a geometry where magnetic field and columnar pins are normal to the layers. Thermodynamic properties and equilibrium density distributions are obtained from numerical minimization of an appropriate free-energy functional. We find a line of first-order transitions that ends at a critical point as the pin concentration is increased. We quantitatively determine the location of this critical point and show that it is experimentally accessible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dasgupta
authors.forename: O T
authors.initials: OT
authors.lastname: Valls