A new methodology for studying vortex dynamics based on point-contact spectroscopy

Abstract

Vortex dynamics has attracted tremendous attention for both fundamental physics and applications of type-II superconductors. However, methods to detect local vortex motion or vortex jump with high sensitivity are still scarce. Here, we fabricated soft point contacts on the clean layered superconductor 2H–NbSe2, which are demonstrated to contain multiple parallel micro-constrictions by scanning electronic microscopy. Andreev reflection spectroscopy was then studied in detail for the contacts. Differential conductance taken at fixed bias voltages was discovered to vary spontaneously over time in various magnetic fields perpendicular to the sample surface. The conductance variations become invisible when the field is zero or large enough, or parallel to the sample surface, which can be identified as the immediate consequence of vortex motion across a finite number of micro-constrictions. These results demonstrate point contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy to be a new potential way with a high time resolution to study the vortex dynamics in type-II superconductors.