PHYSICS:
Enhanced: Flux Quanta on the Move
Hans Hilgenkamp, Victor V. Moshchalkov, Peter Kes
The controlled motion of magnetic fluxes forms the basis for various superconducting devices. These fluxes are kept in place by a "pinning" force. In their Perspective, Hilgenkamp, Moshchalkov, and Kes discuss a novel means to control the motion of the magnetic fluxes in superconducting devices by engineering nanometer-scale artificial pinning sites. They highlight the reversible rectifier based on such controlled flux motion reported by Villegas et al. In this device the asymmetric shape of the pinning sites enables the conversion from an ac superconducting current to a dc output voltage.
H. Hilgenkamp is at the Low Temperature Division, Faculty of Science and Technology and the MESA+ Research Institute, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, Netherlands. E-mail: h.hilgenkamp{at}utwente.nl V. V. Moshchalkov is at the Vaste Stof Fysica and Magnetisme Lab, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. E-mail: victor.moshchalkov{at}fys.kuleuven.ac.be P. Kes is at the Kamerlingh Onnes Lab, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands. E-mail: kes{at}phys.leidenuniv.nl
