Vortex-Line Phase Diagram for Anisotropic Superconductors

Abstract

The zero temperature vortex phase diagram for uniaxial anisotropic superconductors placed in an external magnetic field tilted with respect to the axis of anisotropy is studied for parameters typical of BSCCO and YBCO. The exact Gibbs free energy in the London approximation, using a self-energy expression with an anisotropic core cutoff, is minimized numerically, assuming only that the equilibrium vortex state is a vortex-line-lattice with a single vortex line per primitive unit cell. The numerical method is based on simulated annealing and uses a fast convergent series to calculate the energy of interaction between vortex lines. A phase diagram with three distinct phases is reported and the phases are characterized in detail. New results for values of the applied field close to the lower critical field are reported.