Magnetic control of superconducting vortices. Control magnético de vórtices superconductores

Luis Antonio Pérez, César G. Galván, Chumín Wang

Chumín Wang, César G. Galván, Luis Antonio Pérez

Jun‐Yi Ge, V. N. Gladilin, Jacques Tempere +2 more

Quantized vortices, as topological defects, play an important role in both physics and technological applications of superconductors. Normally, the nucleation of vortices requires the presence of a high magnetic field or current density, which allow the vortices to enter from the sample boundaries. At the same time, the controllable generation of individual vortices inside a superconductor is still challenging. Here, we report the controllable creation of single quantum vortices and antivortices at any desirable position inside a superconductor. We exploit the local heating effect of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip: superconductivity is locally suppressed by the tip and vortex-antivortex pairs are generated when supercurrent flows around the hot spot. The experimental results are well-explained by theoretical simulations within the Ginzburg-Landau approach.

Niladri Banerjee, Jason W. A. Robinson

T Müller, B Zhang, R Fermani +5 more

We store and control ultra-cold atoms in a new type of trap using the magnetic fields of vortices in a high-temperature superconducting micro-structure. We generate the attractive trapping potential for the atoms by combining the magnetic field of a superconductor in the remanent state with external homogeneous magnetic fields. We show the control of crucial atom trap characteristics such as an efficient intrinsic loading mechanism, spatial positioning of the trapped atoms and the vortex density in the superconductor. The measured trap characteristics are in good agreement with our numerical simulations.

Robert Ernest Troxler