Observation of superconducting vortices carrying a temperature-dependent fraction of the flux quantum

Autor: Iguchi, Yusuke, Shi, Ruby, Kihou, Kunihiro, Lee, Chul-Ho, Grinenko, Vadim, Babaev, Egor, Moler, Kathryn A.
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Science 0,eabp9979 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1126/science.abp9979
Popis: The magnetic response is a state-defining property of superconductors. The magnetic flux penetrates type-II bulk superconductors by forming quantum vortices when the enclosed magnetic flux is equal to the magnetic flux quantum. The flux quantum is the universal quantity that depends only on the ratio of fundamental constants: the electron charge and the Planck constant. This work investigates the vortex state in the hole-overdoped Ba$_{1-x}$K$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$ by using scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. We observed quantum vortices that carry only a fraction of the flux quantum, which vary continuously with temperature. This finding establishes the phenomenon that superconductors support quantum vortices with non-universally quantized magnetic flux. Furthermore, the demonstrations of the mobility of the fractional vortices and the manipulability of their positions open up a route for future fluxonics applications.
Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures
Databáze: arXiv
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