Controllable manipulation of superconductivity using magnetic vortices

The magneto-transport of a superconducting/ferromagnetic hybrid structure, consisting of a superconducting thin film in contact with an array of magnetic nanodots in the so-called ‘magnetic vortex state’, exhibits interesting properties. For certain magnetic states, the stray magnetic field from the vortex array is intense enough to drive the superconducting film into the normal state. In this fashion, the normal-to-superconducting phase transition can be controlled by the magnetic history. The strong coupling between superconducting and magnetic subsystems allows characteristically ferromagnetic properties, such as hysteresis and remanence, to be dramatically transferred into the transport properties of the superconductor. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)