Physica C 437–438 (2006) 184–186

www.elsevier.com/locate/physc

Vortex lattices in different configurations of periodic

pinning line-arrays
Cléssio Leão S. Lima *, Leonardo R.E. Cabral,
Clécio C. de Souza Silva, J. Albino Aguiar
Laboratório de Supercondutividade e Materiais Magnéticos, Departamento de Fı́sica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco,
50670-901 Recife-PE, Brazil

Available online 7 February 2006

Abstract

The vortex lattice (VL) ground-state configurations are found using Monte Carlo (MC) simulated annealing with a local molecular
dynamics (MD) in the London limit. We study the field dependence of the melting temperature for commensurate and incommensurate
vortex lattices interacting with different periodic arrays of pinning. We also investigated the proliferation of topological defects and its
dependence on the periodic pinning array symmetry and temperature.
 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

PACS: 74.25.Ha; 74.25.Qt; 74.78.w; 74.78.Na

Keywords: Vortices; Periodic pinning; Monte Carlo simulation

1. Introduction
Melting of 2D systems is not a recent issue in condensed
matter physics. About 2D melting in general, nowadays we
know that on a smooth substrate there is not a transla-
tional long-range order [1]. Moreover, Nelson, Halperin
and Young formulated a theory (KTNHY) [2] based on
the ideas of Kosterlitz and Thouless [3], which predicts that
2D melting would occur via two separate second order
transitions. In the first transition, we have unbinding of dis-
location pairs and in the second transition for higher tem-
peratures we have unbinding of disclination pairs.
In spite of all this information, there is still considerable
interest in this subject and in particular in melting of VL.
Actually, some works show that VL in 2D systems (thin
films) has transitions like KT transitions [4], while others
point to weak first order transitions [5]. If we are interested
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: clsl@df.ufpe.br (C.L.S. Lima).
in a defect field, there are many works with random pin-
ning [6] and periodic pinning arrays [7]. In the last case,
the order of phase transitions and what kind of phases
for different pinning symmetries can be found is still a con-
troversal topic. In the present paper, we focus on melting
and pinning phenomena for different kinds of periodic pin-
ning arrays. In particular situations, we found the stable
vortex configuration and how this configuration evolves
as a function of pinning strength. We also investigate
how topological defects proliferate.
2. Simulation and calculated quantities
We consider a square 2D system with periodic boundary
conditions of size LxLy = 8k · 8k, where k is the penetra-
tion depth length. Different configurations of periodic
array of pinning were used: a straight line, two parallel
lines separated by k and two perpendicular lines of pinning
centers. Nv vortices interact with pinning centers and
between themselves according to the following expressions,
respectively:

0921-4534/$ - see front matter  2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.physc.2005.12.077
 C.L.S. Lima et al. / Physica C 437–438 (2006) 184–186
 
a2p n2p 1 2
U vp
ik
2 2
¼ ap 2 exp  ðbx þ by Þ=np ;
p 2
U vv
ij ¼  ln rij ;
pr
where bu ¼ sinðpuap
Þ, u = x, y, and np ¼ sinð app Þ and so the
total energy is given by
1 X vv X vp
E¼ U þ U ik . ð3Þ
2 i6¼j ij ik
In our case, rp = 0.0125ap and ap = 0.25k. Only one vor-
tex per pinning, ns = 1 (rp  2n), is permitted. We use MC
simulated annealing with local MD.
At the end of the simulation, we collect temperature
dependent quantities like the internal energy average hEi,
specific heat C(T), general vortex position standard devia-
tion rr, rx and ry and for each particle, pinned vortex per-
centage v(T), radial distribution function gð~rÞ, distribution
function of vortex position Pxy, density–density correlation
function Gð~ rÞ, histogram of energy, voronoi and delaunay
cells and final VL snapshots.
3. Results
The VL configurations were obtained at various values
of B (Nv = 4–64) for the different kinds of pinning arrays.
In this paper, we describe some interesting cases. The com-
plete study will be presented elsewhere.
The first case studied is a straight line of pinning centers
(Fig. 1). All the structures obtained try to lock into the pin-
ning line in order to decrease the total free energy. The VL
orientation is induced by matching between VL and pin-
ning array lattice parameters.
For Nv = 16, all the pinning centers are filled when
T = 0. For T 5 0, all vortices shake in the same way in
an elastic melting. When the temperature is increased
unpinned vortices shake more than pinned ones. In a par-
ticular high temperature region, these same vortices move
in an anisotropic mode inducing a smectic phase and the
first topological defect: bound dislocation pairs [8]. This
8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 0
Fig. 1. Vortex ground state (full circles) obtained from simulated annealing for a pinning line (open circles) with Nv = 16, 32 and 48, respectively.
185
ð1Þ
ð2Þ
Fig. 2. Energy versus temperature curve for Nv = 16 interacting with a
straight line of pinning centers. Trx and Try are the temperatures when x
and y vortex position deviations explode. TC(T) is the temperature when
C(T) · T curve has a peak. Insets: VL snapshots for the instant before first
topological defect appears (a), for a bounded dislocation pair (b), for an
unbounded dislocation pair with Burgers vector parallel (c) or perpendic-
ular (d) to the pinning line and (e) unbounded disclination.
temperature region is characterized by the begin of plastic
melting. If the temperature is increased further these bound
dislocation pairs are separated with Burgers vector direc-
tion parallel to the pinning line, and for higher tempera-
tures unbound dislocation pairs with Burgers vector
perpendicular to pinning line can be seen. After this point,
for higher temperatures, specific heat curve has a peak
announcing unbounded disclinations and so the vortex lat-
tice is melted. At this same temperature, vortices can
unlock from the pinning centers (see Fig. 2).
Note that Nv = 16 is a specific case, where one funda-
mental lattice vector of ideal VL aligns exactly with pinning
line (VL and the pinning array are almost commensurate).
When VL and pinning line are arranged in a different way,
the melting process occurs differently. For example, with
Nv = 48 VL align perpendicular to Nv = 16 case. In this sit-
uation, topological defects appear in the same temperature
8
6
4
2
0
2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8
186 C.L.S. Lima et al. / Physica C 437–438 (2006) 184–186
order (bounded dislocation–unbounded dislocation–
unbounded disclination) but with different directions. The
vortex position standard deviation curves shows that all
the r 0 s increase in the same temperature so that in this sam-
ple we do not have a smectic phase.
If the VL and pinning line orientations are more com-
plex like in the case Nv = 32, despite the defects appear
in the same order, the temperature at which these defects
appear is lower. It happens because the stable VL configu-
ration in T  0 for Nv = 32 is very different from hexagonal
VL configuration and it is easier to proliferate topological
defects. For low temperatures, VL oscillates between differ-
ent configurations and the melting process will occur when
T increased, in the direction of these oscillations (easy melt-
ing axis).
For two parallel pinning lines, one of the most interest-
ing cases is Nv = 8. In this case, VL locks so that two pin-
ning centers are filled and the structure of VL oscillate
between pentagonal and hexagonal structures. This insta-
bility is not maintained if potential pinning strength is
decreased. In these cases, the VL locks in the pinning line
in only one pining site for ap < 170. For Nv = 16, we have
two possible degenerate stable flux patterns at T  0, both
are similar to one pinning line case for Nv = 48 and
Nv = 16. Thus, despite the same vortex density, there are
two different melting behaviors. In one case, there is isotro-
pic melting, but in other cases there is anisotropic melting.
In the latter possibility, characteristic temperatures are
lower than in the first case. Moreover, the gð~ rÞ curves show
that the VL of second case is more distributed than the first
case because melting process is more different from hexag-
onal VL ideal melting process.
For the case of two perpendicular lines, VL choose a
particular direction to orientate. If Nv = 16, only pinning
sites in x-direction can be occupied. Thus, the melting pro-
cess is similar to one line case with the same number of vor-
tices, but now with a lower characteristic temperatures. If
Nv = 64, despite high density, we still have a smectic phase
from VL ground state when temperature is increased.
4. Conclusion
In summary, we have simulated different kinds of pin-
ning array where VL is submitted. In some situations, the
symmetry of these arrays can induce an anisotropic melting
despite high vortex density values. In all structures, phase
transitions are similar to KT transitions. Additional calcu-
lations are currently under way and will be reported
elsewhere.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Brazilian Agencies
CNPq,CAPES and PADCTIII/CNPq.
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