Vortex patterns are determined for a superconducting cylinder with mesoscopic dimensions, namely, larger than the coherence length and smaller than the London penetration length, using the nonlinear Ginzburg-Landau theory. The critical fields and matching fields are obtained for field orientation parallel and perpendicular to the cylinder axis. In the latter case, vortex rearrangements are found to occur in the vortex patterns. Tilting of the field leads to interesting phenomena caused by the small volume-to-surface ratio, as vortex lines are preferentially oriented along the field direction while they are forced to be perpendicular to the surface. Vortices can enter and leave the cylinder also by simply rotating the applied field and we study here in detail the cases up to three vortices. We find the striking result of a single vortex with the lowest free-energy configuration achieved at a tilted angle.

• Received 29 December 2006
• Corrected 4 June 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.75.184525