Eur. Phys. J. B (2012) 85: 130
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2012-30013-7

Regular Article

Dynamic and static phases of vortices under an applied drive in a superconducting stripe with an array of weak links

¹ Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium
² Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, 52171-900 Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
³ Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 68528 Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21941-972, Brazil

^a e-mail: golib.br@gmail.com

Received: 6 January 2012
Received in final form: 9 February 2012
Published online: 24 April 2012

Abstract

Static and dynamic properties of superconducting vortices in a superconducting stripe with a periodic array of weakly-superconducting (or normal metal) regions are studied in the presence of external magnetic and electric fields. The time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory is used to describe the electronic transport, where the anisotropy is included through the spatially-dependent critical temperature T_c. Superconducting vortices penetrating into the weak-superconducting region with smaller T_c are more mobile than the ones in the strong superconducting regions. We observe periodic entrance and exit of vortices which reside in the weak link for some short interval. The mobility of the weakly-pinned vortices can be reduced by increasing the uniform applied magnetic field leading to distinct features in the voltage vs. magnetic field response of the system.