Microwave-stimulated superconductivity due to presence of vortices

[en] The response of superconducting devices to electromagnetic radiation is a core concept implemented in diverse applications, ranging from the currently used voltage standard to single photon detectors in astronomy. Suprisingly, a sufficiently high power subgap radiation may stimulate superconductivity itself. The possibility of stimulating type II superconductors, in which the radiation may interact also with vortex cores, remains however unclear. Here we report on superconductivity enhanced by GHz radiation in type II superconducting Pb films in the presence of vortices. The stimulation effect is more clearly observed in the upper critical field and less pronounced in the critical temperature. The magnetic field dependence of the vortex related microwave losses in a film with periodic pinning reveals a reduced dissipation of mobile vortices in the stimulated regime due to a reduction of the core size. Results of numerical simulations support the validy of this conclusion. Our findings may have intriguing connections with holographic superconductors in which the possibility of stimulation is under current debate.

Disciplines :

Physics

Author, co-author :

Lara, Antonio; Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Aliev, Farkhad; Universidad Autonoma de Madrid

Silhanek, Alejandro ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique expérimentale des matériaux nanostructurés

Moshchalkov, Victor; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - KUL

Language :

English

Title :

Microwave-stimulated superconductivity due to presence of vortices

Publication date :

17 March 2015

Journal title :

Scientific Reports

eISSN :

2045-2322

Publisher :

Nature Publishing Group, London, United Kingdom

Volume :

Pages :

9187

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 17 March 2015

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