Size-Induced Depression of First-Order Transition Lines and Entropy Jump in Extremely Layered Nanocrystalline Vortex Matter

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 115; no. 13; p. 137003
• Main Authors: Dolz, M I, Fasano, Y, Cejas Bolecek, N R, Pastoriza, H, Mosser, V, Li, M, Konczykowski, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 25-09-2015
• Subjects: Depletion; Entropy; Fluid flow; Nanocrystals; Order disorder; Phase diagrams; Solidification; Vortices
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.115.137003

We detect the persistence of the solidification and order-disorder first-order transition lines in the phase diagram of nanocrystalline Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8} vortex matter down to a system size of less than one hundred vortices. The temperature location of the vortex solidification transition line is not altered by decreasing the sample size although there is a depletion of the entropy jump at the transition with respect to macroscopic vortex matter. The solid order-disorder phase transition field moves upward on decreasing the system size due to the increase of the surface-to-volume ratio of vortices entailing a decrease on the average vortex binding energy.