Vortex Sublattice Melting in a Two-Component Superconductor

E. Smørgrav; J. Smiseth; E. Babaev; A. Sudbø

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.096401

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Vortex Sublattice Melting in a Two-Component Superconductor

E. Smørgrav, J. Smiseth, E. Babaev, A. Sudbø

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.096401 · Physical Review Letters

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Abstract

We consider the vortices in a superconductor with two individually conserved condensates in a finite magnetic field. The ground state is a lattice of cocentered vortices in both order parameters. We find two phase transitions: (i) a “vortex sublattice melting” transition where vortices in the field with lowest phase stiffness (“light vortices”) lose cocentricity with the vortices with large phase stiffness (“heavy vortices”), entering a liquid state (the structure factor of the light vortices vanishes continuously; this transition is in the 3Dxy universality class); (ii) a first-order melting transition of the lattice of heavy vortices, in a liquid of light vortices.