Branching of the vortex nucleation period in superconductor Nb microtubes due to inhomogeneous transport current

Abstract

An inhomogeneous transport current, which is introduced through multiple electrodes in an open Nb microtube, is shown to lead to a controllable branching of the vortex nucleation period. The detailed mechanism of this branching is analyzed using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation. The relative change of the vortex nucleation period strongly depends on the geometry of multiple electrodes. The average number of vortices occurring in the tube in a nanosecond can be effectively reduced owing to the inhomogeneous transport current, what is important for noise and energy dissipation reduction in superconductor applications, e.g., for an extension of the operation regime of superconductor-based sensors to lower frequencies.