Nanoscale assembly of superconducting vortices with scanning tunnelling microscope tip

Jun-Yi Ge, Vladimir N. Gladilin, Jacques Tempere, Cun Xue, Jozef T. Devreese, Joris Van de Vondel, Youhe Zhou and Victor V. Moshchalkov ()
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Jun-Yi Ge: INPAC–Institute for Nanoscale Physics and Chemistry
Vladimir N. Gladilin: INPAC–Institute for Nanoscale Physics and Chemistry
Jacques Tempere: TQC–Theory of Quantum and Complex Systems, Universiteit Antwerpen, Universiteitsplein 1
Cun Xue: INPAC–Institute for Nanoscale Physics and Chemistry
Jozef T. Devreese: TQC–Theory of Quantum and Complex Systems, Universiteit Antwerpen, Universiteitsplein 1
Joris Van de Vondel: INPAC–Institute for Nanoscale Physics and Chemistry
Youhe Zhou: School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University
Victor V. Moshchalkov: INPAC–Institute for Nanoscale Physics and Chemistry

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Vortices play a crucial role in determining the properties of superconductors as well as their applications. Therefore, characterization and manipulation of vortices, especially at the single-vortex level, is of great importance. Among many techniques to study single vortices, scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) stands out as a powerful tool, due to its ability to detect the local electronic states and high spatial resolution. However, local control of superconductivity as well as the manipulation of individual vortices with the STM tip is still lacking. Here we report a new function of the STM, namely to control the local pinning in a superconductor through the heating effect. Such effect allows us to quench the superconducting state at nanoscale, and leads to the growth of vortex clusters whose size can be controlled by the bias voltage. We also demonstrate the use of an STM tip to assemble single-quantum vortices into desired nanoscale configurations.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13880

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