Dolz, M I., Y. Fasano, N R. Cejas Bolecek, H. Pastoriza, V. Mosser, M. Li, and M. Konczykowski. "Size-Induced Depression of First-Order Transition Lines and Entropy Jump in Extremely Layered Nanocrystalline Vortex Matter." Physical Review Letters 115, no. 13 (2015): 137003.
Abstract: We detect the persistence of the solidification and order-disorder first-order transition lines in the phase diagram of nanocrystalline Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 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.
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