Josephson vortices and the Meissner effect in stacked junctions and layered superconductors: Exact analytical results

dc.creatorKuplevakhsky, Sergey V.
dc.date2000-11-22
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:39:25Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:39:25Z
dc.descriptionWe present an exact mathematical description of Josephson vortices and of the Meissner effect in periodic thin-layer superconductor/insulator structures with an arbitrary number of identical junctions N-1 (N is the number of superconducting layers) in terms of localized solutions to a system of differential equations for phase differences. We establish a general criterion of the existence of localized solutions. We show that Meissner solutions are characterized by several Josephson lengths [N/2 lengths for even N, and (N-1)/2 lengths for odd N]. We derive an exact expression for the superheating field of the Meissner state as an explicit function of N. For Josephson vortices, we find two basically different types of topological solutions: ''vortex-plane'' solutions and incoherent vortex solutions. Thermodynamically stable ''vortex-plane'' solutions represent a chain of N-1 vortices (one vortex per each insulating layer). They are characterized by the same set of Josephson lengths as the Meissner solutions. We obtain exact analytical expressions for their self-energy and for the lower critical field. Incoherent vortex solutions comprise solutions with k < N-1 vortices and different vortex-antivortex configurations. In contrast to the ''vortex-plane'' solutions, they prove to be thermodynamically unstable, and their spatial dependence is characterized, in general, by N-1 length scales. As an illustration, we analyze 1-4-Josephson-junction stacks and investigate a transition to the layered superconductor limit.
dc.description29 pages, 2 figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0011391
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0011391
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/17053
dc.subjectSuperconductivity
dc.titleJosephson vortices and the Meissner effect in stacked junctions and layered superconductors: Exact analytical results
dc.typetext

Files

Collections