Edge superconducting state in Nb thin film with rectangular arrays of antidots


Abstract in English

Superconducting Nb thin films with rectangular arrays of submicron antidots have been systemically investigated by transport measurements. In low fields, the magnetoresistance curves demonstrate well-defined dips at integral and rational numbers of flux quanta per unit cell, which corresponds to a superconducting wire network-like regime. When the magnetic field is higher than a saturation field, interstitial vortices interrupt the collective oscillation in low fields and form vortex sublattice, where a larger magnetic field interval is observed. In higher fields, a crossover behavior from the interstitial sublattice state to a single-loop-like state is observed, characterized by oscillations with a period of $Phi_0/pi r_{eff}^2$, originating from the existence of edge superconducting states with a size $r_{eff}$ around the antidots.

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