Bitter decoration of vortex patterns in superconducting Nb films with random, triangular, and Penrose arrays of antidots

Abstract

We imaged Abrikosov vortex patterns in thin Nb films with random, periodic (triangular), and quasiperiodic (Penrose) arrays of antidots. Vortex positions were visualized by Bitter decoration for a range of applied fields B, antidot radii r, and densities np after field-cooling through the transition temperature Tc to a base temperature T≈2K. The observed vortex patterns correspond to snapshots of vortex positions at the time of decoration. The effectiveness of antidots as artificial pinning sites for vortices is found to be sensitive to several factors: array geometry, antidot size and density, and applied field. Overall, the triangular lattice provides the most effective pinning landscape, with antidots trapping the highest proportion of vortices, but for a wide range of parameters the Penrose lattice is equally effective. For a quantitative analysis, we determined the occupation number n (average number of vortices trapped per antidot) from each image. This revealed a significantly more complicated dependence of antidot occupation on applied field and/or antidot density than that predicted by simple models considering pinning by an isolated antidot. In particular, upon increasing the antidot density np, we find a marked increase in n for triangular arrays, which we attribute to the additional repulsion from interstitial vortices, pushing more vortices into antidots with decreasing antidot separation. This effect is also present but less pronounced for Penrose arrays, which can be explained by the variation of antidot spacing inherent to the Penrose geometry and accordingly more options for accommodating interstitial vortices.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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