MONTE-CARLO SEARCH FOR THE FLUX-LATTICE-MELTING TRANSITION IN 2-DIMENSIONAL SUPERCONDUCTORS

A Monte Carlo simulation of the vortices in a two-dimensional type-II superconductor shows that the correlation length, which measures the range over which triangular lattice ordering of the vortices exists, diverges to infinity in the zero-temperature limit, just as predicted by a scaling argument based on phase fluctuations. No evidence is found for the formation of a vortex-lattice phase at a finite temperature.