The Flux-Line Lattice in Superconductors

Magnetic flux can penetrate a type-II superconductor in form of Abrikosov vortices. These tend to arrange in a triangular flux-line lattice (FLL) which is more or less perturbed by material inhomogeneities that pin the flux lines, and in high-$T_c$ supercon- ductors (HTSC's) also by thermal fluctuations. Many properties of the FLL are well described by the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau theory or by the electromagnetic London theory, which treats the vortex core as a singularity. In Nb alloys and HTSC's the FLL is very soft mainly because of the large magnetic penetration depth: The shear modulus of the FLL is thus small and the tilt modulus is dispersive and becomes very small for short distortion wavelength. This softness of the FLL is enhanced further by the pronounced anisotropy and layered structure of HTSC's, which strongly increases the penetration depth for currents along the c-axis of these uniaxial crystals and may even cause a decoupling of two-dimensional vortex lattices in the Cu-O layers. Thermal fluctuations and softening may melt the FLL and cause thermally activated depinning of the flux lines or of the 2D pancake vortices in the layers. Various phase transitions are predicted for the FLL in layered HTSC's. The linear and nonlinear magnetic response of HTSC's gives rise to interesting effects which strongly depend on the geometry of the experiment.Comment: Review paper for Rep.Prog.Phys., 124 narrow pages. The 30 figures do not exist as postscript file

Vortex motion and the Hall effect in type II superconductors: a time dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory approach

Vortex motion in type II superconductors is studied starting from a variant of the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations, in which the order parameter relaxation time is taken to be complex. Using a method due to Gor'kov and Kopnin, we derive an equation of motion for a single vortex ($B\ll H_{c2}$) in the presence of an applied transport current. The imaginary part of the relaxation time and the normal state Hall effect both break ``particle-hole symmetry,'' and produce a component of the vortex velocity parallel to the transport current, and consequently a Hall field due to the vortex motion. Various models for the relaxation time are considered, allowing for a comparison to some phenomenological models of vortex motion in superconductors, such as the Bardeen-Stephen and Nozi\`eres-Vinen models, as well as to models of vortex motion in neutral superfluids. In addition, the transport energy, Nernst effect, and thermopower are calculated for a single vortex. Vortex bending and fluctuations can also be included within this description, resulting in a Langevin equation description of the vortex motion. The Langevin equation is used to discuss the propagation of helicon waves and the diffusional motion of a vortex line. The results are discussed in light of the rather puzzling sign change of the Hall effect which has been observed in the mixed state of the high temperature superconductors.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. B; 47 pages, 1 figure (available upon request); uses jnl.tex along with the macros reforder.tex and eqnorder.te