Stability of the Meissner state in a 3D ordered Josephson medium

The stability of the Meissner state of a 3D Josephson medium against combinations of phase jump small fluctuations at contacts is considered. Expressions for the elements of the quadratic form matrix for the second variation of the Gibbs potential are derived. Overheat field values and forms of fluctuations causing instabilities are found. Ratio H S 1 / H S 2 , where H S 1 is the overheat field and H S 2 is the maximal field at which the Meissner state still exists, grows with increasing pinning parameter I , varying between 0.84 and 1. Almost at all pinning parameters, critical fluctuations represent rapidly decreasing (inward to the sample) periodic alternating-sign structures one cell wide. When the pinning parameter is very small ( I < 0.1), such an instability is absent. In this range of I , ratio H S 1 / H S 2 is close to unity.