Intrinsic pinning, commensurability, and reentrant behavior on superconducting Mo/Si multilayers

A reentrance phenomenon is found on Mo/Si multilayers which occurs in parallel to the layers and slightly inclined magnetic fields. This effect may be explained in terms of the intrinsic pinning and vortex lattice (VL) commensurability with the underlying layered structure. The locations of the zero-resistance regions correspond to stable VL configurations or to the transitions between two commensurate lattices. It is suggested that this resistive method may be used as a tool to study VL structure in layered superconductors. [S0163-1829(99)13301-0].