Vortex trapping and expulsion in thin-film YBCO strips

TL;DR

This study uses scanning SQUID microscopy to investigate vortex trapping and expulsion in thin-film YBCO strips, developing a model that accurately predicts vortex density and observing vortex arrangements at various densities.

Contribution

The paper introduces a simple, predictive model for vortex exclusion and trapping in YBCO strips, validated by experimental data and applicable to other superconducting materials.

Findings

Vortices are excluded below a critical induction Bc.

The model predicts vortex density as n=(Ba-BK)/Phi0, matching experiments.

Vortices form ordered rows at higher densities.

Abstract

A scanning SQUID microscope was used to image vortex trapping as a function of the magnetic induction during cooling in thin-film YBCO strips for strip widths W from 2 to 50 um. We found that vortices were excluded from the strips when the induction Ba was below a critical induction Bc. We present a simple model for the vortex exclusion process which takes into account the vortex - antivortex pair production energy as well as the vortex Meissner and self-energies. This model predicts that the real density n of trapped vortices is given by n=(Ba-BK)/Phi0 with BK = 1.65Phi0/W^2 and Phi0 = h/2e the superconducting flux quantum. This prediction is in good agreement with our experiments on YBCO, as well as with previous experiments on thin-film strips of niobium. We also report on the positions of the trapped vortices. We found that at low densities the vortices were trapped in a single row near the centers of the strips, with the relative intervortex spacing distribution width decreasing as the vortex density increased, a sign of longitudinal ordering. The critical induction for two rows forming in the 35 um wide strip was (2.89 + 1.91-0.93)Bc, consistent with a numerical prediction.