Non-reciprocity of vortex-limited critical current in conventional superconducting micro-bridges

Autor: Dhavala Suri, Akashdeep Kamra, Thomas N. G. Meier, Matthias Kronseder, Wolfgang Belzig, Christian H. Back, Christoph Strunk
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Applied Physics Letters. 121:102601
ISSN: 1077-3118
0003-6951
DOI: 10.1063/5.0109753
Popis: Non-reciprocity in the critical current has been observed in a variety of superconducting systems and has been called the superconducting diode effect. The origin underlying the effect depends on the symmetry breaking mechanisms at play. We investigate superconducting micro-bridges of NbN and also NbN/magnetic insulator (MI) hybrids. We observe a large diode efficiency of [Formula: see text]30% when an out-of-plane magnetic field as small as 25 mT is applied. In both NbN and NbN/MI hybrid, we find that the diode effect vanishes when the magnetic field is parallel to the sample plane. Our observations are consistent with the critical current being determined by the vortex surface barrier. Unequal barriers on the two edges of the superconductor strip result in the diode effect. Furthermore, the rectification is observed up to 10 K, which makes the device potential for diode based applications over a larger temperature range than before.
Databáze: OpenAIRE