Anisotropic pinning effect on a Nb thin film with triangular arrays of pinning sites

Abstract

A superconducting Nb thin film with triangular arrays of pinning sites has been fabricated to investigate the commensurate vortex lattices. Vortex-vortex interactions in this pattern film make the observed anisotropy in the pinning properties. Periodic minima appear in the magnetoresistance curves at equal field intervals that can be associated with matching effect. The transport properties at near critical temperatures show anisotropic pinning properties related to the configuration of pinning centers. The critical current is depressed when the driving force is applied along the short diagonal in the rhombic unit cell of pinning array. It implies that the pinning potential along the short diagonal creates a moving channel of vortices in triangular arrays of defects. The pinned and interstitial vortices can be movable in an incommensurate vortex row and a straight unhindered one-dimensional path. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.