title: Direct observation of vortex shells and magic numbers in mesoscopic superconducting disks.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: I V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Grigorieva
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Escoffier
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Vinnikov
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dubonos
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Oboznov