Thermal depinning of a single superconducting vortex in Nb

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.50.12770· OSTI ID:6841853

Sok, J; Finnemore, D K ^[1]

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1. Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 (United States)

Thermal depinning has been studied for a single vortex trapped in a superconducting Nb thin film in order to determine the value of the superconducting order parameter and the superfluid density when the vortex depins and starts to move around the film. The value depends on the pinning site, but typically the location of the vortex begins to change when the order parameter is about 24% of the [ital T]=0 value and the superfluid density is about 5% of the [ital T]=0 value. For all the pinning sites probed, the vortex would exit the film when the superfluid density was under 1%. This implies that there is a window between 9.1 and 9.2 K where vortices will spontaneously leave the film in a microtesla environment even though the film is still superconducting.

• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-82
• OSTI ID: 6841853
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States) Vol. 50:17; ISSN 0163-1829; ISSN PRBMDO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360107* -- Metals & Alloys-- Superconducting Properties-- (1992-)
CRITICAL CURRENT
CURRENTS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELEMENTS
FILMS
FRAUNHOFER LINES
JOSEPHSON JUNCTIONS
JUNCTIONS
MAGNETIC FLUX
METALS
NIOBIUM
ORDER PARAMETERS
SUPERCONDUCTING FILMS
SUPERCONDUCTING JUNCTIONS
TEMPERATURE RANGE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0000-0013 K
TRANSITION ELEMENTS