Vortex Ordering and Dynamics on Santa Fe Artificial Ice Pinning Arrays

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to explore vortex behavior in Santa Fe artificial ice pinning arrays, revealing diverse vortex states, unique pinning effects, and flow dynamics influenced by array geometry.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed numerical analysis of vortex ordering and flow in Santa Fe ice arrays, highlighting differences from square arrays and the impact of frustration effects.

Findings

Variety of vortex states including ice rule obeying and labyrinthine patterns

Absence of sharp peaks in critical current due to frustration

Enhanced pinning compared to square arrays in certain fillings

Abstract

We numerically examine the ordering, pinning and flow of superconducting vortices interacting with a Santa Fe artificial ice pinning array. We find that as a function of magnetic field and pinning density, a wide variety of vortex states occur, including ice rule obeying states and labyrinthine patterns. In contrast to square pinning arrays, we find no sharp peaks in the critical current due to the inherent frustration effect imposed by the Santa Fe ice geometry; however, there are some smoothed peaks when the number of vortices matches the number of pinning sites. For some fillings, the Santa Fe array exhibits stronger pinning than the square array due to the suppression of one-dimensional flow channels when the vortex motion in the Santa Fe lattice occurs through the formation of both longitudinal and transverse flow channels.