Mobile fluxons as coherent probes of periodic pinning in superconductors.

The interaction of (quasi)particles with a periodic potential arises in various domains of science and engineering, such as solid-state physics, chemical physics, and communication theory. An attractive test ground to investigate this interaction is represented by superconductors with artificial pinning sites, where magnetic flux quanta (Abrikosov vortices) interact with the pinning potential U(r) = U(r + R) induced by a nanostructure. At a combination of microwave and dc currents, fluxons act as mobile probes of U(r): The ac component shakes the fluxons in the vicinity of their equilibrium points which are unequivocally determined by the local pinning force counterbalanced by the Lorentz force induced by the dc current, linked to the curvature of U(r) which can then be used for a successful fitting of the voltage responses. A good correlation of the deduced dependences U(r) with the cross sections of the nanostructures points to that pinning is primarily caused by vortex length reduction. Our findings pave a new route to a non-destructive evaluation of periodic pinning in superconductor thin films. The approach should also apply to a broad class of systems whose evolution in time can be described by the coherent motion of (quasi)particles in a periodic potential.

Vortex ratchet reversal in an asymmetric washboard pinning potential subject to combined dc and ac stimuli.

The mixed-state resistive response of a superconductor thin film with an asymmetric washboard pinning potential subject to superimposed dc and ac currents of arbitrary amplitudes and frequency at finite temperature is theoretically investigated. The problem is considered in the single-vortex approximation, relying upon the exact solution of the Langevin equation in terms of a matrix continued fraction. The dc voltage response and the absorbed power in ac response are analyzed as functions of dc bias and ac current amplitude and frequency in a wide range of corresponding dimensionless parameters. Predictions are made of (i) a reversal of the rectified voltage at small dc biases and strong ac drives and (ii) a non-monotonic enhancement of the absorbed power in the nonlinear ac response at far sub-depinning frequencies. It is elucidated how and why both these effects appear due to the competition of the fixed internal and the tunable, dc bias-induced external asymmetry of the potential as the only reason. This is distinct from other scenarios used for explaining the vortex ratchet reversal effect so far.