title: Size-Induced Depression of First-Order Transition Lines and Entropy Jump in Extremely Layered Nanocrystalline Vortex Matter.
abstract: We detect the persistence of the solidification and order-disorder first-order transition lines in the phase diagram of nanocrystalline Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8} vortex matter down to a system size of less than one hundred vortices. The temperature location of the vortex solidification transition line is not altered by decreasing the sample size although there is a depletion of the entropy jump at the transition with respect to macroscopic vortex matter. The solid order-disorder phase transition field moves upward on decreasing the system size due to the increase of the surface-to-volume ratio of vortices entailing a decrease on the average vortex binding energy.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de San Luis and CONICET, 5700 San Luis, Argentina.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Dolz
authors.affiliation: Low Temperatures Division, Centro Atómico Bariloche, CNEA, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fasano
authors.affiliation: Low Temperatures Division, Centro Atómico Bariloche, CNEA, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina.
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Cejas Bolecek
authors.affiliation: Low Temperatures Division, Centro Atómico Bariloche, CNEA, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pastoriza
authors.affiliation: Itron France, ITC, F-92448 Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mosser
authors.affiliation: Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Solides Irradiées, CNRS UMR 7642 & CEA-DSM-IRAMIS, Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau cedex, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Konczykowski