Surface melting of the vortex lattice.
We discuss the effect of an (ab) surface on the melting transition of the pancake-vortex lattice in a layered superconductor within a density functional theory approach. Both discontinuous and continuous surface melting are predicted for this system, although the latter scenario occupies the major part of the low-field phase diagram. The formation of a quasiliquid layer below the bulk melting temperature inhibits the appearance of a superheated solid phase, yielding an asymmetric hysteretic behavior which has been seen in experiments.
De Col
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Theoretische Physik, ETH-Zürich, Switzerland.
Menon
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Geshkenbein
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Blatter
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