Enhancing superconducting critical current by randomness

Wang, Y. L.; Thoutam, L. R.; Xiao, Z. L.; Shen, B.; Pearson, J. E.; Divan, R.; Ocola, L. E.; Crabtree, G. W.; Kwok, W. K.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.93.045111

Enhancing superconducting critical current by randomness

Journal Article · Mon Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.045111· OSTI ID:1248955

Wang, Y. L. ^[1]; Thoutam, L. R. ^[2]; Xiao, Z. L. ^[2]; Shen, B. ^[3]; Pearson, J. E. ^[3]; Divan, R. ^[4]; Ocola, L. E. ^[4]; Crabtree, G. W. ^[5]; Kwok, W. K. ^[3]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division; Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States). Dept. of Physics
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division; Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States). Dept. of Physics
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division; Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, IL (United States). Dept. of Physics, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering

The key ingredient of high critical currents in a type-II superconductor is defect sites that pin vortices. Here, we demonstrate that a random pinscape, an overlooked pinning system in nanopatterned superconductors, can lead to a substantially larger critical current enhancement at high magnetic fields than an ordered array of vortex pin sites. We reveal that the better performance of a random pinscape is due to the variation of the local density of its pinning sites, which mitigates the motion of vortices. This is confirmed by achieving even higher enhancement of the critical current through a conformally mapped random pinscape, where the distribution of the local density of pinning sites is further enlarged. Our findings highlight the potential of random pinscapes in enhancing the superconducting critical currents of applied superconductors in which random pin sites of nanoscale defects emerging in the materials synthesis process or through ex-situ irradiation are the only practical choice for large-scale production. Our results may also stimulate research on effects of a random pinscape in other complementary systems such as colloidal crystals, Bose-Einstein condensates, and Luttinger liquids.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1248955

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1234297

Journal Information:: Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 93; ISSN 2469-9950; ISSN PRBMDO

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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