# Nanoscale assembly of superconducting vortices with scanning tunnelling microscope tip

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) can be used to control and assemble individual superconducting vortices at the nanoscale by locally manipulating superconductivity through heating effects.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel method to control vortex pinning and assemble vortices using STM-induced local heating, enabling nanoscale manipulation of superconducting vortices.

## Key findings

- STM can locally quench superconductivity to grow vortex clusters.
- Vortex cluster size is tunable by bias voltage.
- STM tip can assemble single vortices into specific configurations.

## Abstract

Vortices play a crucial role in determining the properties of superconductors as well as their applications. Therefore, characterization and manipulation of vortices, especially at the single vortex level, is of great importance. Among many techniques to study single vortices, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) stands out as a powerful tool, due to its ability to detect the local electronic states and high spatial resolution. However, local control of superconductivity as well as the manipulation of individual vortices with the STM tip is still lacking. Here we report a new function of the STM, namely to control the local pinning in a superconductor through the heating effect. Such effect allows us to quench the superconducting state at nanoscale, and leads to the growth of vortex-clusters whose size can be controlled by the bias voltage. We also demonstrate the use of an STM tip to assemble single quantum vortices into desired nanoscale configurations.