title: Melting of the nanocrystalline vortex matter in highly anisotropic high-temperature superconductors.
abstract: Multilevel Monte Carlo simulations of the vortex matter in the highly anisotropic high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 were performed. We introduced low concentration of columnar defects satisfying Bphi < or = B. Both the electromagnetic and Josephson interactions among pancake vortices were included. The nanocrystalline, nanoliquid, and homogeneous liquid phases were identified in agreement with experiments. We observed the two-step melting process and also noted an enhancement of the structure factor just prior to the melting transition. A proposed theoretical model is in agreement with our findings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
authors.forename: Yadin Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Goldschmidt
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cuansing