Stable "antiferromagnetic" vortex lattice imprinted into a type-II superconductor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a checkerboard antiferromagnetic vortex lattice can be imprinted and stabilized in a type-II superconductor using a periodic magnetic field pattern and artificial pinning centers, persisting after the field is removed.

Contribution

It introduces a method to create and stabilize an antiferromagnetic vortex lattice in a superconductor using microcoil-generated magnetic patterns and pinning centers.

Findings

Checkerboard vortex-antivortex lattice remains stable after imprinting.

Artificial pinning centers help trap and maintain the lattice.

The method enables control over vortex arrangements in superconductors.

Abstract

In type-II superconductors, where vortices and antivortices tend to annihilate, only a "ferromagnetic" vortex lattice, with the same orientation of vortex magnetic moments, is usually formed in a homogeneous external magnetic field. Using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau formalism, we demonstrate that a checkerboard vortex-antivortex lattice ("antiferromagnetic vortex lattice"), imprinted onto a superconducting film by a periodic array of underlying clockwise and counterclockwise microcoils generating spatially periodic positive and negative magnetic field pulses and then trapped by an array of artificial pinning centers, remains stable even after the imprinting magnetic field pulse is switched off.