Vortex Dynamics in Superconducting Films: Comensurability and Surface Effects

Abstract

The penetration and further evolution of stiff vortex lines in a superconducting film under a parallel magnetic field is numerically simulated. A square array of in-plane columnar defects is considered as a periodic pinning potential. It is shown that the strong surface effects play an important role in the commensurability between the vortex lattice and the pinning potential. The matching peaks of the magnetization curve are associated to a stable composite vortex lattice in which two distinc vortex lattices are commensurate with the pinning potential.

Probing the low-frequency vortex dynamics in a nanostructured superconducting strip

“…This is consistent with molecular dynamics simulations of vortices in a superconducting slab with periodic pinning, which predicted that, for a wide range of applied field values, vortices distribute uniformly over the bulk of the sample, while near the sample surface the vortex density depletes considerably. 43 Such configurations stem from the interplay between the pining potential and the Bean-Livingston (B-L) barrier, 44 which tends to keep vortices away from the sample surface within a distance of the order of λ.…”