Microwave generation and vortex jets in superconductor nanotubes

Abstract

The dynamics of magnetic flux quanta (Abrikosov vortices) determine the resistive response of superconductors. In pinning-free planar thin films, the penetration and motion of vortices are controlled by edge defects, leading to such arrangements as vortex chains, vortex jets, and phase-slip regimes. Here, relying upon the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation, we predict that these vortex patterns should appear in superconductor open nanotubes even without edge defects, due to the inhomogeneity of the normal magnetic induction component $B_\mathrm{n}$, caused by the 3D tube geometry. The crossing of the half-tubes by dc-driven vortices induces GHz-frequency voltage $U$ oscillations with spectra $U_\mathrm{f}(B)$ evolving between $nf_1$ and $\frac{n}{m}f_1$ [$f_1$: vortex nucleation frequency; $n,m\geq 2$] and blurred in certain ranges of currents and fields. An $nf_1$-spectrum corresponds to a single vortex-chain regime typical for low $B$ and for tubes of small radii. At higher fields, an $\frac{n}{m}f_1$-spectrum points to the presence of $m$ vortex chains in the vortex jets which, in contrast to planar thin films, are not diverging because of constraint to the tube areas where $B_\mathrm{n}$ is close to maximum. A blurry spectrum implies complex arrangements of vortices because of multifurcations of their trajectories. Finally, due to a stronger confinement of single vortex chains in tubes of small radii, we reveal peaks in $dU/dB$ and jumps in the frequency of microwave generation, which occur when the number of fluxons moving in the half-tubes increases by one. In all, our findings are essential for novel 3D superconductor devices which can operate in few- and multi-fluxon regimes.