pyTDGL: Time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau in Python

TL;DR

pyTDGL is a Python package that simulates the dynamics of superconducting thin films using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model, enabling detailed analysis of vortex behavior and device responses.

Contribution

It introduces pyTDGL, a versatile Python tool for modeling complex superconducting phenomena in arbitrary geometries with various inhomogeneities.

Findings

Simulated vortex distributions in irregularly shaped films.

Analyzed current-voltage-field characteristics of nanoSQUIDs.

Demonstrated modeling of nonlinear magnetic responses.

Abstract

Time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) theory is a phenomenological model for the dynamics of superconducting systems. Due to its simplicity in comparison to microscopic theories and its effectiveness in describing the observed properties of the superconducting state, TDGL is widely used to interpret or explain measurements of superconducting devices. Here, we introduce $\texttt{pyTDGL}$, a Python package that solves a generalized TDGL model for superconducting thin films of arbitrary geometry, enabling simulations of vortex and phase dynamics in mesoscopic superconducting devices. $\texttt{pyTDGL}$ can model the nonlinear magnetic response and dynamics of multiply connected films, films with multiple current bias terminals, and films with a spatially inhomogeneous critical temperature. We demonstrate these capabilities by modeling quasi-equilibrium vortex distributions in irregularly shaped films, and the dynamics and current-voltage-field characteristics of nanoscale superconducting quantum interference devices (nanoSQUIDs).