Freezing of vortex liquid in high temperature superconductors

Abstract

In this paper we study the freezing of the vortex fluid by using the density functional theory. The freezing temperature of the vortex fluid is calculated for various applied magnetic fields, thus generating the freezing line. The choice of freezing over melting is made simply that the liquid state is a homogeneous one, and the correlations are short ranged. This choice helps with the physical understanding, as well as making the calculations relatively simpler. Our results are compared and discussed in relation to available experiments. Show more