Microscopic equivalence of the vortex-entry current and the depairing current in a superconducting thin-film strip

Abstract

The vortex-entry current density $J_{\rm v}$ of a superconducting strip is usually defined, within phenomenological Pearl--London theory, as the current density at which the edge barrier for vortex entry disappears. In that approach, $J_{\rm v}$ depends on a short-distance core cutoff introduced by hand, and its temperature dependence cannot be determined within the same framework. To remove this cutoff ambiguity and determine the temperature dependence, one needs a microscopic calculation of the vortex-entry current. Nevertheless, such a microscopic calculation has never been carried out. Here, we formulate and solve this problem for an ideal homogeneous dirty-limit superconducting thin-film strip at zero applied field, with self-field effects neglected. Vortex entry is treated as the loss of local stability of the vortex-free current-carrying state. The calculation uses the fixed-current Gibbs functional of Usadel theory, which is valid over the full temperature range $0<T<T_c$, and examines both spatially uniform and nonuniform perturbations. The microscopic calculation shows that the condition for disappearance of the vortex-entry barrier is identical to the depairing condition. The central result is not merely that two current densities have the same value. The criterion for disappearance of the vortex-entry barrier and the depairing criterion are not independent conditions. Both identify the same loss of local stability of the vortex-free current-carrying state, namely, the same spinodal. Consequently, $J_{\rm v}(T)=J_{\rm dp}(T)$ for all $0<T<T_c$. This result determines the temperature dependence of $J_{\rm v}$, removes the Pearl--London core-cutoff ambiguity, and establishes the microscopic equivalence of the vortex-entry and depairing current criteria.