A Superconducting Reversible Rectifier That Controls the Motion of Magnetic Flux Quanta
J. E. Villegas,1
Sergey Savel'ev,2
Franco Nori,2,3
E. M. Gonzalez,1
J. V. Anguita,4
R. García,4
J. L. Vicent1*
We fabricated a device that controls the motion of flux quanta
in a niobium superconducting film grown on an array of nanoscale
triangular pinning potentials. The controllable rectification
of the vortex motion is due to the asymmetry of the fabricated
magnetic pinning centers. The reversal in the direction of the
vortex flow is explained by the interaction between the vortices
trapped on the magnetic nanostructures and the interstitial
vortices. The applied magnetic field and input current strength
can tune both the polarity and magnitude of the rectified vortex
flow. Our ratchet system is explained and modeled theoretically,
taking the interactions between particles into consideration.
2 Frontier Research System, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Wako-shi, Saitama, 351–0198, Japan.
3 Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109–1120, USA.
4 Instituto de Microelectrónica de Madrid, Centro Nacional Mícroelectrónica, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Isaac Newton 8, Tres Cantos, 28760 Madrid, Spain.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jlvicent{at}fis.ucm.es
