Direct observation of vortex shells and magic numbers in mesoscopic superconducting disks.
We have studied vortex configurations in mesoscopic superconducting disks using the Bitter decoration technique. For a broad range of vorticities L the circular geometry is found to lead to the formation of concentric shells of vortices. From images obtained on disks of different sizes in a range of magnetic fields we traced the evolution of vortex states and identified stable and metastable configurations of interacting vortices. Furthermore, the analysis of shell filling with increasing L allowed us to identify magic numbers corresponding to the appearance of consecutive new shells.
Grigorieva
I V
IV
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
Escoffier
W
W
Richardson
J
J
Vinnikov
L Y
LY
Dubonos
S
S
Oboznov
V
V