68 research outputs found
Nucleation of Superconductivity in a Mesoscopic Loop of Finite Width
The normal/superconducting phase boundary Tc has been calculated for
mesoscopic loops, as a function of an applied perpendicular magnetic field H.
While for thin-wire loops and filled disks the Tc(H) curves are well known, the
intermediate case, namely mesoscopic loops of finite wire width, have been
studied much less. The linearized first Ginzburg-Landau equation is solved with
the proper normal/vacuum boundary conditions both at the internal and at the
external loop radius. For thin-wire loops the Tc(H) oscillations are perfectly
periodic, and the Tc(H) background is parabolic (this is the usual Little-Parks
effect). For loops of thicker wire width, there is a crossover magnetic field
above which Tc(H) becomes quasi-linear, with the period identical to the Tc(H)
of a filled disk (i.e. pseudoperiodic oscillations). This dimensional
transition is similar to the 2D-3D transition for thin films in a parallel
field, where vortices start penetrating the material as soon as the film
thickness exceeds the temperature dependent coherence length by a factor 1.8.
For the presently studied loops, the crossover point is controlled by a similar
condition. In the high field '3D' regime, a giant vortex state establishes,
where only a surface superconducting sheath near the sample's outer radius is
present.Comment: 7 pages text, 2 EPS figures, uses LaTeX's elsart.sty, proceedings of
the First Euroconference on "Vortex Matter in Superconductors", held in Crete
(18-24 september 1999
Magnetic coupling between mesoscopic superconducting rings
Using the nonlinear Ginzburg-Landau theory we investigated the dependence of
the magnetic coupling between two concentric mesoscopic superconducting rings
on their thickness. The size of this magnetic coupling increases with the
thickness of the rings.Comment: 3 pages text, 3 ps figures, to be published in Physica C (Proceedings
of the 2nd European Conference in School Format "Vortex Matter in
Superconductors"
Confinement and Quantization Effects in Mesoscopic Superconducting Structures
We have studied quantization and confinement effects in nanostructured
superconductors. Three different types of nanostructured samples were
investigated: individual structures (line, loop, dot), 1-dimensional (1D)
clusters of loops and 2D clusters of antidots, and finally large lattices of
antidots. Hereby, a crossover from individual elementary "plaquettes", via
clusters, to huge arrays of these elements, is realized. The main idea of our
study was to vary the boundary conditions for confinement of the
superconducting condensate by taking samples of different topology and, through
that, modifying the lowest Landau level E_LLL(H). Since the critical
temperature versus applied magnetic field T_c(H) is, in fact, E_LLL(H) measured
in temperature units, it is varied as well when the sample topology is changed
through nanostructuring. We demonstrate that in all studied nanostructured
superconductors the shape of the T_c(H) phase boundary is determined by the
confinement topology in a unique way.Comment: 28 pages, 19 EPS figures, uses LaTeX's aipproc.sty, contribution to
Euroschool on "Superconductivity in Networks and Mesoscopic Systems", held in
Siena, Italy (8-20 september 1997
Superconductivity in a Mesoscopic Double Square Loop: Effect of Imperfections
We have generalized the network approach to include the effects of
short-range imperfections in order to analyze recent experiments on mesoscopic
superconducting double loops. The presence of weakly scattering imperfections
causes gaps in the phase boundary or for certain intervals of
, which depend on the magnetic flux penetrating each loop. This is
accompanied by a critical temperature , showing a smooth transition
between symmetric and antisymmetric states. When the scattering strength of
imperfections increases beyond a certain limit, gaps in the phase boundary
or appear for values of magnetic flux lying in intervals
around half-integer . The critical temperature corresponding to
these values of magnetic flux is determined mainly by imperfections in the
central branch. The calculated phase boundary is in good agreement with
experiment.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Vortex Matter in Mesoscopic Superconducting Disks and Rings
Phase transitions between different (i.e. giant and multi-vortex)
superconducting states and between the superconducting-normal state of
mesoscopic disks and rings are studied in the presence of an external magnetic
field by solving the two non-linear Ginzburg-Landau equations
self-consistently. The flux through a circular disk with a hole in the middle
is not quantized.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures; to appear in Physica C (proceedings of the
conference on Vortex matter, Crete (september 1999
Dependence of the vortex configuration on the geometry of mesoscopic flat samples
The influence of the geometry of a thin superconducting sample on the
penetration of the magnetic field lines and the arrangement of vortices are
investigated theoretically. We compare superconducting disks, squares and
triangles with the same surface area having nonzero thickness. The coupled
nonlinear Ginzburg-Landau equations are solved self-consistently and the
important demagnetization effects are taken into account. We calculate and
compare quantities like the free energy, the magnetization, the Cooper-pair
density, the magnetic field distribution and the superconducting current
density for the three geometries. For given vorticity the vortex lattice is
different for the three geometries, i.e. it tries to adapt to the geometry of
the sample. This also influences the stability range of the different vortex
states. For certain magnetic field ranges we found a coexistence of a giant
vortex placed in the center and single vortices toward the corners of the
sample. Also the H-T phase diagram is obtained.Comment: 9 pages, 17 figures (submitted to Phys. Rev. B
Giant vortex state in perforated aluminum microsquares
We investigate the nucleation of superconductivity in a uniform perpendicular
magnetic field H in aluminum microsquares containing a few (2 and 4) submicron
holes (antidots). The normal/superconducting phase boundary T_c(H) of these
structures shows a quite different behavior in low and high fields. In the low
magnetic field regime fluxoid quantization around each antidot leads to
oscillations in T_c(H), expected from the specific sample geometry, and
reminiscent of the network behavior. In high magnetic fields, the T_c(H)
boundaries of the perforated and a reference non-perforated microsquare reveal
cusps at the same values of Phi/Phi_0 (where Phi is the applied flux threading
the total square area and Phi_0 is the superconducting flux quantum), while the
background on T_c(H) becomes quasi-linear, indicating that a giant vortex state
is established. The influence of the actual geometries on T_c(H) is analyzed in
the framework of the linearized Ginzburg-Landau theory.Comment: 14 pages, 6 PS figures, RevTex, accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
Critical temperature oscillations in magnetically coupled superconducting mesoscopic loops
We study the magnetic interaction between two superconducting concentric
mesoscopic Al loops, close to the superconducting/normal phase transition. The
phase boundary is measured resistively for the two-loop structure as well as
for a reference single loop. In both systems Little-Parks oscillations,
periodic in field are observed in the critical temperature Tc versus applied
magnetic field H. In the Fourier spectrum of the Tc(H) oscillations, a weak
'low frequency' response shows up, which can be attributed to the inner loop
supercurrent magnetic coupling to the flux of the outer loop. The amplitude of
this effect can be tuned by varying the applied transport current.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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