Causes and Consequences of Ordering and Dynamic Phases of Confined Vortex Rows in Superconducting Nanostripes

Abstract

Understanding the behaviour of vortices under nanoscale confinement in superconducting circuits is important for the development of superconducting electronics and quantum technologies. Using numerical simulations based on the Ginzburg–Landau theory for non-homogeneous superconductivity in the presence of magnetic fields, we detail how lateral confinement organises vortices in a long superconducting nanostripe, presenting a phase diagram of vortex configurations as a function of the stripe width and magnetic field. We discuss why the average vortex density is reduced and reveal that confinement influences vortex dynamics in the dissipative regime under sourced electrical current, mapping out transitions between asynchronous and synchronous vortex rows crossing the nanostripe as the current is varied. Synchronous crossings are of particular interest, since they cause single-mode modulations in the voltage drop along the stripe in a high (typically GHz to THz) frequency range.