Electrical conductivity beyond a linear response in layered superconductors under a magnetic field

Abstract

The time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau approach is used to investigate nonlinear response of a strongly type-II superconductor. The dissipation takes a form of the flux flow which is quantitatively studied beyond linear response. Thermal fluctuations, represented by the Langevin white noise, are assumed to be strong enough to melt the Abrikosov vortex lattice created by the magnetic field into a moving vortex liquid and marginalize the effects of the vortex pinning by inhomogeneities. The layered structure of the superconductor is accounted for by means of the Lawrence-Doniach model. The nonlinear interaction term in dynamics is treated within self-consistent Gaussian approximation and we go beyond the often used lowest Landau level approximation to treat arbitrary magnetic fields. The I-V curve is calculated for arbitrary temperature and the results are compared to experimental data on high-T-c. superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-delta.