Imprinting nanoporous alumina patterns into the magneto-transport of oxide superconductors

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how oxygen ion irradiation can imprint nanoporous alumina patterns into superconducting films, creating nanoscale modulation of superconductivity and revealing periodic magneto-transport oscillations similar to the Little-Parks effect.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ion irradiation method to pattern oxide superconductors at the nanoscale, enabling controlled modulation of their superconducting properties.

Findings

Nanoscale periodic oscillations in magneto-transport observed

Ion irradiation transfers alumina pattern into superconducting films

Technique can be extended to other oxide materials

Abstract

We used oxygen ion irradiation to transfer the nanoscale pattern of a porous alumina mask into high- superconducting thin films. This causes a nanoscale spatial modulation of superconductivity and strongly affects the magneto-transport below, which shows a series of periodic oscillations reminiscent of the Little-Parks effect in superconducting wire networks. This irradiation technique could be extended to other oxide materials in order to induce ordered nanoscale phase segregation.