Tunable pinning in superconducting films with magnetic microloops

Abstract

The authors study the flux pinning properties of superconductor/magnetic microring lattice hybrid structures. The used open triangular micromagnets represent an eightfold degree of freedom system, with six polarized and two flux-closure possible states. By conveniently choosing the magnetic state of the underlying rings, it is possible to induce different pinning potentials. They show that the magnetic vortex state with minimum stray field produces a weaker pinning in comparison with the polarized states. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.