Mesoscopic cross-film cryotrons: Vortex trapping and dc-Josephson-like oscillations of the critical current

in Physical Review. B : Condensed Matter (2011), 83(14),

We investigate theoretically and experimentally the transport properties of a plain Al superconducting strip in the presence of a single straight current-carrying wire, oriented perpendicular to the ... [more ▼]

We investigate theoretically and experimentally the transport properties of a plain Al superconducting strip in the presence of a single straight current-carrying wire, oriented perpendicular to the superconducting strip. It is well known that the critical current of the superconducting strip, I(c), in such a cryotron-like system can be tuned by changing the current in the control wire, I(w). We demonstrated that the discrete change in the number of the pinned vortices/antivortices inside the narrow and long strip nearby the current-carrying wire results in a peculiar oscillatory dependence of I(c) on I(w). [less ▲]