Physical Review Letters -- February 23, 1998 -- Volume
80, Issue 8, pp.
1734-1737
Josephson Glass and Decoupling of Flux Lattices in Layered Superconductors
Baruch Horovitz and T. Ruth Goldin
Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105,
Israel
(Received 26 August 1997)
Phase transitions of a flux lattice in layered superconductors with magnetic field perpendicular to the layers and in the presence of disorder are studied. We find that the Josephson coupling between layers leads to a strongly pinned Josephson glass (JG) phase at low temperatures and fields. The JG phase is bounded by a decoupling transition line and a depinning transition line. These lines cross and form a multicritical point where four phases meet. The phase diagram accounts for unusual data on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 such as the "second peak" transition and the recently observed depinning transitions.
©1998 The American Physical Society
PACS: 74.60.Ge, 74.25.Dw, 74.80.Dm