title: Trapping a single vortex and reducing quasiparticles in a superconducting resonator.
abstract: Vortices trapped in thin-film superconducting microwave resonators can have a significant influence on the resonator performance. Using a variable-linewidth geometry for a weakly coupled resonator, we are able to observe the effects of a single vortex trapped in the resonator through field cooling. For resonant modes where the vortex is near a current antinode, the presence of even a single vortex leads to a measurable decrease in the quality factor and a dispersive shift of the resonant frequency. For modes with the vortex located at a current node, the presence of the vortex results in no detectable excess loss and, in fact, produces an increase in the quality factor. We attribute this enhancement to a reduction in the density of nonequilibrium quasiparticles in the resonator due to their trapping and relaxation near the vortex core.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244-1130, USA.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nsanzineza
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244-1130, USA.
authors.forename: B L T
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Plourde