Size-induced depression of first-order transition lines and entropy-jump in extremely-layered nanocrystalline vortex matter

M. I. DOLZ; Y. FASANO; N. R. CEJAS BOLECEK; H. PASTORIZA; V. MOSSER; M. LI; M. KONCZYKOWSKI

Rosario

Encuentro; XV Encuentro de Superficies y Materiales Nanoestructurados, NANO 2015; 2015

We detect thepersistence of the solidification and order-disorder first-ordertransition lines in the phase diagram of nanocrystallineBi2Sr2CaCu2O8vortex matter down to a system size of less than hundred vortices.The temperature-location of the vortex solidification transition lineis not altered by decreasing the sample size although there is adepletion of the entropy-jump at the transition with respect tomacroscopic vortex matter. The solid order-disorder phase transitionfield HSPmoves upward on decreasing the system size due to the increase ofvortices entailing a decrease on the average vortex binding energy.