Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials
Physics) -- October 1, 1999 --
Volume 60, Issue 14, pp. R9939-R9942
Second magnetization peak in flux lattices: The decoupling scenario
Baruch Horovitz
Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
84105, Israel
(Received 10 March 1999)
The second peak phenomenon of flux lattices in layered superconductors is described in terms of a
disorder induced layer decoupling transition. For weak disorder the tilt modulus undergoes an
apparent discontinuity which leads to an enhanced critical current and reduced domain size in the
decoupled phase. The Josephson plasma frequency is reduced by decoupling and by Josephson
glass pinning; in the liquid phase it varies as 1/[BT(T + T0)], where T is temperature, B is field,
and T0 is the disorder dependent temperature of the multicritical point.
©1999 The American Physical Society
PACS: 74.25.Dw, 74.60.Ge, 74.80.Dm