Optical Manipulation of Single Flux Quanta

Abstract

Magnetic field can penetrate into type-II superconductors in the form of Abrikosov vortices, which are magnetic flux tubes surrounded by circulating supercurrents often trapped at defects referred to as pinning sites. Although the average properties of the vortex matter can be tuned with magnetic fields, temperature or electric currents, handling of individual vortices remains challenging and has been demonstrated only with sophisticated magnetic force, superconducting quantum interference device or strain-induced scanning local probe microscopies. Here, we introduce a far-field optical method based on local heating of the superconductor with a focused laser beam to realize a fast, precise and non-invasive manipulation of individual Abrikosov vortices, in the same way as with optical tweezers. This simple approach provides the perfect basis for sculpting the magnetic flux profile in superconducting devices like a vortex lens or a vortex cleaner, without resorting to static pinning or ratchet effects. Since a single vortex can induce a Josephson phase shift, our method also paves the way to fast optical drive of Josephson junctions, with potential massive parallelization of operations.

References in corpus (9)

• Reducing vortex density in superconductors using the ratchet effect
• Mechanics of Individual, Isolated Vortices in a Cuprate Superconductor
• Probing dynamics and pinning of single vortices in superconductors at nanometer scales
• Controlled Manipulation of Individual Vortices in a Superconductor
• Behavior of vortices near twin boundaries in underdoped $Ba(F{e}_{1-x}C{o}_x{)}_{2}A{s}_2$
• Mechanical control of individual superconducting vortices
• Detection of the phase shift from a single quantized superconducting vortex
• Effect of nearby Pearl vortices upon the $I_c$ vs $B$ characteristics of planar Josephson junctions in thin and narrow superconducting strips
• Suppression of geometrical barrier in $B{i}_{2}S{r}_{2}CaC{u}_2{O}_{8+\delta }$ crystals by Josephson vortex stacks

Cited by in corpus (45)

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• Quantitative magneto-optical investigation of superconductor/ferromagnet hybrid structures
• Perspective on Reversible to Irreversible Transitions in Periodic Driven Many Body Systems and Future Directions For Classical and Quantum Systems
• Mechanism of generation of a Josephson phase shift by an Abrikosov vortex
• Spontaneous generation and active manipulation of real-space optical vortex
• Ultrafast Electron Microscopy of Nanoscale Charge Dynamics in Semiconductors
• Manipulating multi-vortex states in superconducting structures
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• All-optical generation of Abrikosov vortices by the Inverse Faraday Effect
• Reversible ratchet effects in a narrow superconducting ring
• Word and bit line operation of a 1x1 μm2 superconducting vortex-based memory
• Individual Vortex Manipulation and Stick-Slip Motion in Periodic Pinning Arrays
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• Dynamics and Nonmonotonic Drag for Individually Driven Skyrmions
• Commensuration Effects on Skyrmion Hall Angle and Drag for Manipulation of Skyrmions on Two-Dimensional Periodic Substrates
• Impact of border defects on the magnetic flux penetration in superconducting films
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• Scanning quantum vortex microscopy reveals thickness-dependent pinning nano-network in superconducting Nb-films
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• Complete description of fault-tolerant quantum gate operations for topological Majorana qubit systems
• Finite temperature effects on Majorana bound states in chiral $p$-wave superconductors
• The importance of thermal gradients on the vortex dynamics and magnetic behavior of mesoscopic superconducting samples
• Detuning control of Rabi vortex oscillations in light matter coupling
• Antiferromagnetic resonances in superconductor-ferromagnet multilayers
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• Laser pulse probe of chirality of Cooper pairs
• Fluctuations and Pinning for Individually Manipulated Skyrmions
• Active Rheology and Anti-Commensuration Effects For Driven Probe Particles on Two Dimensional Periodic Pinning Substrates
• Numerical modelling of a vortex-based superconducting memory cell: dynamics and geometrical optimization of a fluxonic quantum dot
• Flux-trapping characterization for superconducting electronics using a cryogenic widefield N-$V$ diamond microscope
• Nucleation and Arrangement of Abrikosov Vortices in Hybrid Superconductor-Ferromagnetic Nanostructure
• Anti-Poiseuille Flow: Increased Vortex Velocity at Superconductor Edges
• Magnetic force microscopy versus scanning quantum-vortex microscopy: Probing pinning landscape in granular niobium films
• Vortex Dynamics in Amorphous MoSi Superconducting Thin Films
• Controlled Manipulation of Intermediate State in a Type-I Superconductor
• Quantum Mechanics of an Abrikosov Vortex in Nanofabricated Pinning Potential
• Scheme for braiding Majorana zero modes in vortices using an STT-matrix