Morphology of Flux Avalanches in Patterned Superconducting Films

It is well known that under certain circumstances, magnetic fields applied perpendicularly to the
plane of superconducting films can trigger flux avalanches. In such cases the penetration has a tree-like profile. However, in samples where a regular array of antidots, ADs, is present, the avalanches follow the rows of ADs as if they were guiding lines for the abrupt penetration. In this work we used the magneto-optical imaging technique to study the morphology of flux avalanches in two Nb films with a square lattice of square ADs, each one with a different lateral size, and a plain film for reference. We show that the morphology of the flux avalanches is greatly influenced by the size of the interstitial region.