Superconducting quantum interference device microscopy of fluxoids in superconducting rings and artificially layered systems

Abstract

The SQUID microscope has the advantages of excellent field sensitivity, small interaction between the sensor and the sample, and a linear, easily calibrated response. It has the disadvantages of modest spatial resolution and the requirement of a cooled sensor. In this paper we will present results from two applications of the SQUID microscope, chosen with these advantages and disadvantages in mind. First, we have found that the distribution of final fluxoid states of quenched superconducting rings can be accounted for by using a mechanism of the freeze-out of thermally activated fluxoids. This mechanism is complementary to one proposed by Kibble and Zurek in connection with tests of models of the generation of topological singularities in the early development of the universe, and which relies only on causality to produce a freeze-out of the order of parameter fluctuations. Second, we have studied Pearl vortices in [BaCuOx]n/[CaCuO2]m (CBCO) artificial superlattice structures, with as few as three superconducting CuO2 layers. The Pearl penetration depths of vortices trapped in these films, which should be inversely proportional to the areal superfluid density, are very long (up to ∼1 mm), as expected. In both cases it would be difficult to image fluxoids that generate such weak magnetic fields using any other technique.