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Journal article
Observation of superconducting vortex clusters in S/F hybrids
Scientific reports, v 6(1), pp 38557-38557
09 Dec 2016
PMID: 27934898
Abstract
While Abrikosov vortices repel each other and form a uniform vortex lattice in bulk type-II superconductors, strong confinement potential profoundly affects their spatial distribution eventually leading to vortex cluster formation. The confinement could be induced by the geometric boundaries in mesoscopic-size superconductors or by the spatial modulation of the magnetic field in superconductor/ ferromagnet (S/F) hybrids. Here we study the vortex confinement in S/F thin film heterostructures and we observe that vortex clusters appear near magnetization inhomogeneities in the ferromagnet, called bifurcations. We use magnetic force microscopy to image magnetic bifurcations and superconducting vortices, while high resolution scanning tunneling microscopy is used to obtain detailed information of the local electronic density of states outside and inside the vortex cluster. We find an intervortex spacing at the bifurcation shorter than the one predicted for the same superconductor in a uniform magnetic field equal to the thermodynamical upper critical field H-c2. This result is due to a local enhanced stray field and a competition between vortex-vortex repulsion and Lorentz force. Our findings suggest that special magnetic topologies could result in S/F hybrids that support superconductivity even when locally the vortex density exceeds the thermodynamic critical threshold value beyond which the superconductivity is destroyed.
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Details
- Title
- Observation of superconducting vortex clusters in S/F hybrids
- Creators
- C. Di Giorgio - University of SalernoF. Bobba - University of SalernoA. M. Cucolo - University of SalernoA. Scarfato - University of SalernoS. A. Moore - Temple UniversityG. Karapetrov - Drexel UniversityD. D'Agostino - University of SalernoV. Novosad - Argonne National LaboratoryV. Yefremenko - Argonne National LaboratoryM. Iavarone - Temple UniversityTemple Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
- Publication Details
- Scientific reports, v 6(1), pp 38557-38557
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 11
- Grant note
- MIUR (Ministry of Education, Universities and Research of the Italian Government); Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) DE-SC0004556 / US. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering; United States Department of Energy (DOE) MIUR (Italian Ministry for Higher Education and Research) under the project "Rientro dei Cervelli"; Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) DE-AC02-06CH11357 / US. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Sciences, Basic Energy Sciences (BES); United States Department of Energy (DOE) K3-2016-034; 211 / Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation; Ministry of Education and Science, Russian Federation
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Physics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000389541100001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85005951150
- Other Identifier
- 991019168489704721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Physics, Applied