Ultradense Tailored Vortex Pinning Arrays in Superconducting YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ Thin Films Created by Focused He Ion Beam Irradiation for Fluxonics Applications

Abstract

Magnetic fields penetrate a type-II superconductor as magnetic flux quanta, called vortices. In a clean superconductor they arrange in a hexagonal lattice, while by adding periodic artificial pinning centers many other arrangements can be realized. Using the focused beam of a helium ion microscope we have fabricated periodic patterns of dense pinning centers with spacings as small as 70 nm in thin films of the cuprate superconductor YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$. In these ultradense kagomé-like patterns, the voids lead to magnetic caging of vortices, resulting in unconventional commensurability effects that manifest themselves as peaks in the critical current and minima in the resistance versus applied magnetic field up to $\sim 0.4$T. The various vortex patterns at different magnetic fields are analyzed by molecular dynamics simulations of vortex motion, and the magnetic field dependence of the critical current is confirmed. These findings open the way for a controlled manipulation of vortices in cuprate superconductors by artificial sub-100 nm pinning landscapes.

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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Mask-less Patterning of Gallium-irradiated Superconducting Silicon Using Focused Ion Beam
• Angular magnetic-field dependence of vortex matching in pinning lattices fabricated by focused or masked helium ion beam irradiation of superconducting YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ thin films
• Ordered Bose Glass of Vortices in Superconducting YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ Thin Films with a Periodic Pin Lattice Created by Focused Helium Ion Irradiation
• Phase purity and surface morphology of high-Jc superconducting Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2O8+δ thin films
• Drive Dependence of the Hall Angle for a Sliding Wigner Crystal in a Magnetic Field
• Vortex dynamics induced by scanning SQUID susceptometry
• Nanostructured Superconductors
• Angle-dependent Magnetoresistance of an Ordered Bose Glass of Vortices in YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ Thin Films with a Periodic Pinning~Lattice
• Enhanced superconducting properties of Bi${}_2$Sr${}_2$CaCu${}_2$O${}_{8+x}$ films with sub-50-nm thickness
• Temporal Evolution of Defects and Related Electric Properties in He-Irradiated YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ Thin Films
• Controlling Vortex Lattice Structure of Binary Bose-Einstein Condensates via Disorder Induced Vortex Pinning
• Superconductivity in Nanosystems: A Fruitful Path to New Phenomenology in Quantum Materials