JOSEPHSON VORTEX LATTICE IN LAYERED SUPERCONDUCTORS
Koshelev A.E., Dodgson M.J.W.

Received: April 1, 2013

DOI: 10.7868/S0044451013090071

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Dedicated to the memory of Professor Anatoly Larkin} Many superconducting materials are composed of weakly coupled conducting layers. Such a layered structure has a very strong influence on the properties of vortex matter in a magnetic field. This review focuses on the properties of the Josephson vortex lattice generated by the magnetic field applied in the direction of the layers. The theoretical description is based on the Lawrence-Doniach model in the London limit, which takes only the phase degree of freedom of the superconducting order parameter into account. In spite of its simplicity, this model leads to an amazingly rich set of phenomena. We review in detail the structure of an isolated vortex line and various properties of the vortex lattice, in both dilute and dense limits. In particular, we extensively discuss the influence of the layered structure and thermal fluctuations on the selection of lattice configurations at different magnetic fields.