title: Geometrical vortex lattice pinning and melting in YBaCuO submicron bridges.
abstract: Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors (HTSs), most efforts of researchers have been focused on the fabrication of superconducting devices capable of immobilizing vortices, hence of operating at enhanced temperatures and magnetic fields. Recent findings that geometric restrictions may induce self-arresting hypervortices recovering the dissipation-free state at high fields and temperatures made superconducting strips a mainstream of superconductivity studies. Here we report on the geometrical melting of the vortex lattice in a wide YBCO submicron bridge preceded by magnetoresistance (MR) oscillations fingerprinting the underlying regular vortex structure. Combined magnetoresistance measurements and numerical simulations unambiguously relate the resistance oscillations to the penetration of vortex rows with intermediate geometrical pinning and uncover the details of geometrical melting. Our findings offer a reliable and reproducible pathway for controlling vortices in geometrically restricted nanodevices and introduce a novel technique of geometrical spectroscopy, inferring detailed information of the structure of the vortex system through a combined use of MR curves and large-scale simulations.
authors.affiliation: Universitá degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Fisica, Napoli, I-80126, Italy.
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Papari
authors.affiliation: Argonne National Laboratory, Materials Science Division, Lemont IL, 60439, USA.|Northern Illinois University, Department of Physics, DeKalb IL, 60115, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Glatz
authors.affiliation: NEST, CNR-INFM and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, I-56127 Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Carillo
authors.affiliation: Universitá degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Fisica, Napoli, I-80126, Italy.|Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant'Angelo, CNR-SPIN UOS Napoli, Napoli, 80126, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stornaiuolo
authors.affiliation: Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant'Angelo, CNR-SPIN UOS Napoli, Napoli, 80126, Italy.|Seconda Universitá di Napoli, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell'Informazione, Napoli, 81031 Aversa (CE), Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Massarotti
authors.affiliation: Universitá degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Fisica, Napoli, I-80126, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rouco
authors.affiliation: Seconda Universitá di Napoli, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell'Informazione, Napoli, 81031 Aversa (CE), Italy.|American Physical Society, Ridge NY, 11961, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Longobardi
authors.affiliation: Argonne National Laboratory, Materials Science Division, Lemont IL, 60439, USA.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Beltram
authors.affiliation: Argonne National Laboratory, Materials Science Division, Lemont IL, 60439, USA.
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Vinokur
authors.affiliation: Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant'Angelo, CNR-SPIN UOS Napoli, Napoli, 80126, Italy.|Seconda Universitá di Napoli, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell'Informazione, Napoli, 81031 Aversa (CE), Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tafuri