Argonne National Laboratory

Research Highlight | Materials Science

Vortex crowding in superconducting nanostrips
In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers showed that magnetic field and geometrical confinement can suppress dissipation induced by vortex motion thus radically improve superconducting materials performance.
Temperature- and current-dependent parallel magnetic-field–induced reentrant superconductivity. (A) Schematics of the superconducting MoGe film in a triple-axis vector magnet. The out-of-plane magnetic field Hz is perpendicular to both the film plane and the current direction. The in-plane magnetic field Hx is parallel to the film plane and perpendicular to the current direction. The in-plane magnetic field Hy is parallel to both the film plane and the current direction. The electrical current is applied parallel to the y direction. A, Bottom Left Inset shows a photo of the micropatterned MoGe strip. (Scale bar, 50 μm.) (B) Magneto-resistance measured at T=5.8 K for a 100-nm-thick sample under magnetic fields in three orthogonal directions x (blue), y (red), and z (green), respectively. The resistance curve for the parallel field (Hy) shows a resistant state at intermediate fields and a reentrance of the superconducting state at higher fields.

Scientific Achievement

We have demonstrated a ​“vortex crowding” effect whereby increased number of vortices impedes their mutual motion in a parallel magnetic field.

Significance and Impact

Resistive losses due to vortex motion can be reduced in thin superconducting films by applied collinear, in-plane magnetic field and current.

Research Details

  • Discovered a field-induced resistive, reentrant superconducting behavior.
  • Carried out large scale time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau simulations of vortices in parallel magnetic fields and applied current in a confined superconductor.

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1619550114

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