Reconfigurable superconducting vortex pinning potential for magnetic disks in hybrid structures.

ABSTRACT: High resolution scanning Hall probe microscopy has been used to directly visualise the superconducting vortex behavior in hybrid structures consisting of a square array of micrometer-sized Py ferromagnetic disks covered by a superconducting Nb thin film. At remanence the disks exist in almost fully flux-closed magnetic vortex states, but the observed cloverleaf-like stray fields indicate the presence of weak in-plane anisotropy. Micromagnetic simulations suggest that the most likely origin is an unintentional shape anisotropy. We have studied the pinning of added free superconducting vortices as a function of the magnetisation state of the disks, and identified a range of different phenomena arising from competing energy contributions. We have also observed clear differences in the pinning

SUBMITTER: Marchiori E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5364528 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature