skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Enhancing superconducting critical current by randomness

Abstract

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.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [3]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division; Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division; Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States). Dept. of Physics
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials
  5. 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
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1248955
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1234297
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357; DMR-1407175
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 93; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Superconductivity; nanopatterned; vortex

Citation Formats

Wang, Y. L., Thoutam, L. R., Xiao, Z. L., Shen, B., Pearson, J. E., Divan, R., Ocola, L. E., Crabtree, G. W., and Kwok, W. K. Enhancing superconducting critical current by randomness. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.93.045111.
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. Enhancing superconducting critical current by randomness. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.045111
Wang, Y. L., Thoutam, L. R., Xiao, Z. L., Shen, B., Pearson, J. E., Divan, R., Ocola, L. E., Crabtree, G. W., and Kwok, W. K. 2016. "Enhancing superconducting critical current by randomness". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.045111. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1248955.
@article{osti_1248955,
title = {Enhancing superconducting critical current by randomness},
author = {Wang, Y. L. and Thoutam, L. R. and Xiao, Z. L. and Shen, B. and Pearson, J. E. and Divan, R. and Ocola, L. E. and Crabtree, G. W. and Kwok, W. K.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.93.045111},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1248955}, journal = {Physical Review B},
issn = {2469-9950},
number = 4,
volume = 93,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Mon Jan 11 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Vortex Physics in High‐Temperature Superconductors
journal, April 1997


Flux Pinning in a Superconductor by an Array of Submicrometer Magnetic Dots
journal, September 1997


Addition of nanoparticle dispersions to enhance flux pinning of the YBa2Cu3O7-x superconductor
journal, August 2004


Origin of high critical currents in YBa2Cu3O7−δ superconducting thin films
journal, June 1999


Enhancement of the high-magnetic-field critical current density of superconducting MgB2 by proton irradiation
journal, May 2001


Nanoscale strain-induced pair suppression as a vortex-pinning mechanism in high-temperature superconductors
journal, February 2012


Pinning by an antidot lattice: The problem of the optimum antidot size
journal, February 1998


Commensurability Effects in Superconducting Nb Films with Quasiperiodic Pinning Arrays
journal, October 2006


Superconducting vortex pinning with artificial magnetic nanostructures
journal, November 2008


Superconducting transition and vortex pinning in Nb films patterned with nanoscale hole arrays
journal, December 2002


Enhanced vortex pinning by a composite antidot lattice in a superconducting Pb film
journal, July 2005


Matching effect and dynamic phases of vortex matter in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 nanoribbon with a periodic array of holes
journal, July 2010


Vortex lattice dynamics in Nb films with competing intrinsic random and artificial periodic pinning
journal, April 2011


Vortex ratchet effect in a niobium film with spacing-graded density of pinning sites
journal, August 2007


Enhanced pinning in superconducting thin films with graded pinning landscapes
journal, May 2013


Realization of Artificial Ice Systems for Magnetic Vortices in a Superconducting MoGe Thin Film with Patterned Nanostructures
journal, August 2013


Highly effective superconducting vortex pinning in conformal crystals
journal, June 2013


Freezing and thawing of artificial ice by thermal switching of geometric frustration in magnetic flux lattices
journal, August 2014


Composite Flux-Line Lattices Stabilized in Superconducting Films by a Regular Array of Artificial Defects
journal, April 1995


Novel Commensurability Effects in Superconducting Films with Antidot Arrays
journal, May 2006


Commensurate and incommensurate vortex states in superconductors with periodic pinning arrays
journal, April 1998


Individual and multiple vortex pinning in systems with periodic pinning arrays
journal, June 2001


Critical currents and vortex states at fractional matching fields in superconductors with periodic pinning
journal, January 2001


Critical Currents in Quasiperiodic Pinning Arrays: Chains and Penrose Lattices
journal, October 2005


Enhancing the critical current in quasiperiodic pinning arrays below and above the matching magnetic flux
journal, November 2010


Symmetry-Induced Giant Vortex State in a Superconducting Pb Film with a Fivefold Penrose Array of Magnetic Pinning Centers
journal, August 2009


Enhanced pinning and proliferation of matching effects in a superconducting film with a Penrose array of magnetic dots
journal, October 2006


Temperature dependence of vortex configuration by honeycomb hole arrays in a superconducting Nb film
journal, May 2005


Vortex molecular crystal and vortex plastic crystal states in honeycomb and kagomé pinning arrays
journal, August 2007


Spontaneous Transverse Response and Amplified Switching in Superconductors with Honeycomb Pinning Arrays
journal, April 2008


Strongly Enhanced Pinning of Magnetic Vortices in Type-II Superconductors by Conformal Crystal Arrays
journal, June 2013


Pinning, ordering, and dynamics of vortices in conformal crystal and gradient pinning arrays
journal, September 2014


Strongly enhanced current densities in superconducting coated conductors of YBa2Cu3O7–x + BaZrO3
journal, May 2004


Anisotropy-enhanced vortex pinning by randomly splayed extended defects in high-Tc superconductors
journal, June 2000


Enhanced superconducting vortex pinning with disordered nanomagnetic arrays
journal, July 2010


Evaluating free flux flow in low-pinning molybdenum-germanium superconducting films
journal, August 2010


Origin of the matching effect in a superconducting film with a hole array
journal, July 2007


Large oscillations of the magnetoresistance in nanopatterned high-temperature superconducting films
journal, June 2010


Large Magnetoresistance Oscillations in Mesoscopic Superconductors due to Current-Excited Moving Vortices
journal, July 2012


Superconducting films with antidot arrays—Novel behavior of the critical current
journal, May 2006


Voronoi diagrams---a survey of a fundamental geometric data structure
journal, September 1991


Commensurability effects at nonmatching fields for vortices in diluted periodic pinning arrays
journal, September 2007


Phase Transitions of Colloidal Monolayers in Periodic Pinning Arrays
journal, April 2003


Diffusion of point defects in two-dimensional colloidal crystals
journal, September 2001


Growing dynamical facilitation on approaching the random pinning colloidal glass transition
journal, August 2014


Observation of Vortex Pinning in Bose-Einstein Condensates
journal, December 2006


Pinning quantum phase transition for a Luttinger liquid of strongly interacting bosons
journal, July 2010


Works referencing / citing this record:

Switchable geometric frustration in an artificial-spin-ice–superconductor heterosystem
journal, June 2018


Energy dependent structure of Xe ion tracks in YBCO and the effect on the superconductive properties in magnetic fields
journal, October 2019


Open circuit voltage generated by dragging superconducting vortices with a dynamic pinning potential
journal, November 2019