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Translational Correlations In The Vortex Array At The Surface Of A Type-Ii Superconductor, M. Cristina Marchetti, David R. Nelson

Physics - All Scholarship

We discuss the statistical mechanics of magnetic flux lines in a finite-thickness slab of type-II superconductor. The long wavelength properties of a flux-line liquid in a slab geometry are described by a hydrodynamic free energy that incorporates the boundary conditions on the flux lines at the sample's surface as a surface contribution to the free energy. Bulk and surface weak disorder are modeled via Gaussian impurity potentials. This free energy is used to evaluate the two-dimensional structure factor of the flux-line tips at the sample surface. We find that surface interaction always dominates in determining the decay of translational correlations …