# Ultradense Tailored Vortex Pinning Arrays in Superconducting YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$ Thin Films Created by Focused He Ion Beam Irradiation for Fluxonics Applications

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the fabrication of ultradense, tailored vortex pinning arrays in YBa₂Cu₃O₇−δ thin films using focused helium ion beam irradiation, leading to novel vortex arrangements and enhanced critical current properties for fluxonics applications.

## Contribution

It introduces a method to create sub-100 nm artificial pinning landscapes in cuprate superconductors, enabling controlled vortex manipulation and new commensurability effects.

## Key findings

- Dense kagomé-like pinning patterns induce vortex caging.
- Critical current peaks and resistance minima observed up to 0.4 T.
- Molecular dynamics simulations confirm vortex pattern behavior.

## Abstract

Magnetic fields penetrate a type-II superconductor as magnetic flux quanta, called vortices. In a clean superconductor they arrange in a hexagonal lattice, while by adding periodic artificial pinning centers many other arrangements can be realized. Using the focused beam of a helium ion microscope we have fabricated periodic patterns of dense pinning centers with spacings as small as 70 nm in thin films of the cuprate superconductor YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7-\delta}$. In these ultradense kagom\'e-like patterns, the voids lead to magnetic caging of vortices, resulting in unconventional commensurability effects that manifest themselves as peaks in the critical current and minima in the resistance versus applied magnetic field up to $\sim 0.4\,$T. The various vortex patterns at different magnetic fields are analyzed by molecular dynamics simulations of vortex motion, and the magnetic field dependence of the critical current is confirmed. These findings open the way for a controlled manipulation of vortices in cuprate superconductors by artificial sub-100 nm pinning landscapes.