Abstract
We use Ginzburg-Landau theory to study the transition in layered superconductors with field parallel to the layers, finding a continuous 3D freezing transition to a triangular vortex supersolid in the three-dimensional XY universality class. If screening effects are neglected, off-diagonal–long-range order survives only for . The partial breaking of the lowest Landau level degeneracy induced by layering leads to a local selection of a triangular lattice structure, in contrast to the global free energy minimization in, e.g., Abrikosov's calculation. Our results are relevant to artificially layered superconductors and to strongly anisotropic high materials.
- Received 25 August 1995
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.3416
©1996 American Physical Society