Phase transition between two kinds of flux-line lattice in high- Tc superconductors in a tilted field

Abstract

Structures of flux-line lattices (FLL) in vortex states of high- T c superconductors in a tilted field are directly studied by Monte Carlo simulations of the three-dimensional anisotropic XY model, where only Josephson couplings are considered between superconducting layers. A nontrivial structural transition between the Josephson-dominant and Abrikosov-dominant FLL phases occurs as the tilting angle of the external field is increased at low enough temperatures. A similar phase transition is observed by varying the anisotropy parameter with a fixed external field. A finite latent heat at the transition point indicates that this phase transition is of first order.